Girl Arrested Four Years After Lavishly Spending $4.6m was Wrongly Transferred Into Her Account

21-year-old Malaysian national, Christine Jiaxin Lee, who was mistakenly transferred $4.6 million into her Westpac bank account as an overdraft four years ago when she was just 17, was arrested at Sydney Airport trying to flee the country after spending millions on handbags and luxury goods. The chemical engineering student, who allegedly purchased ‘luxury items’ while taking advantage of the mistakenly extended overdraft, was attempting to flee to Malaysia when she was picked up by Australian Federal Police at Sydney Airport on Wednesday night. Ms Lee who still allegedly owes $3.3 million to her bank, appeared at Waverley Local Court on Thursday after being charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime. Court documents revealed she is alleged to have committed the offences on multiple occasions between July 2014 and March 2015. It is alleged she failed to notify the bank that she was not entitled to the money. Police fraud experts launched their investigation in 2012, but a warrant for her arrest was only issued in March this year.

The court heard she knew police were attempting to make contact with her and she obtained an emergency Malaysian passport in order to leave the country. But Ms Lee’s lawyer reportedly said that she had wanted to return home to visit her parents who were unaware of her arrest in Australia. She was granted bail for $1,000 and faces strict bail conditions, with Magistrate Lisa Stapleton agreeing with the prosecution that her attempts to flee Australia meant that she posed a flight risk. Ms Stapleton appeared to suggest the student may not have broken the law and told the court: ‘It’s not proceeds of crime. It’s money we all dream about. She didn’t take it from (the bank). They gave it to her.’ The magistrate said that if this is what happened, the student would owe the money she had spent but would not have broken the law.