Couple flee New Zealand with €4m after bank blunder

A COUPLE whose New Zealand bank accidentally gave them £3.86 million (€4.38m) have managed to flee the country with more than a third of the cash, it emerged.

An international search is under way for the businessman and his girlfriend, who are believed to be in Hong Kong or China.

Leo Gao, Kara Yang and her seven-year-old daughter, Leena, ran a petrol station in the North Island tourist town of Rotorua which had recently gone bankrupt.

Yang’s mother Sue Hurring said that while the situation was “stupid, bizarre,” her daughter was “honest”.

“She has never pinched a thing in her life – probably as a little girl, yes – but she is so honest, so honest,” she said.

Westpac Bank said it accidentally gave them the money after they applied for a loan a fraction of the size.

Westpac said it considered the money stolen, but conceded it was human error that made the couple accidental millionaires.

Ms Hurring, a hairdresser in the South Island town of Blenheim, pleaded for her daughter to stop running.