Couple splurged on casinos and 5-star hotels after bank error saw £5m paid into account

Hui ‘Leo’ Gao and his partner Kara Hurring went on the run after a bank accidently gave Gao a £5million overdraft. The pair lived the high life, gambling much of the cash away, before eventually being arrested by police

A couple spent millions on casinos, hotels and shopping sprees after their bank accidently deposited £5million into their account.

Hui ‘Leo’ Gao had applied for a £52,000 overdraft to help his struggling petrol station business in Rotorua, New Zealand, in 2012.

The loan was approved by Westpac bank but a clerk made the mistake of adding a few zeros, making Gao a millionaire.

The money was not his but that didn’t stop him and his partner Kara Hurring setting out to enjoy every minute of their new found cash.

The pair went on the run, and as became “folk heroes” blowing the money on gambling and five-star hotels.

An international manhunt was launched, but the couple spent and withdrew a total of £3.5million before being arrested by police.

The couple’s story was made into the 2019 film ‘Runaway Millionaires’, based on Hurring’s account of what happened.

A former flatmate of the couple has since recalled how she saw “lots of zeros” when she looked at Gao’s account online, writes The Sun, as it showed a $10million (£5.2million) overdraft.

After refreshing the page a number of times, he started celebrating wildly.

Bianca Taute said: “Gao was ecstatic, he jumped on the bed yelling ‘we’re f*****g rich’ and yahooing and woohooing.”

The next day Gao and Hurring enjoyed a fancy meal, with the former apparently treating himself to a bottle of French brandy.

They then went on the run, taking their daughter Leena, but leaving everything else behind, including their pet kitten.

The pair headed to Auckland first where Gao transferred £260,000 out of his account and began trying to conceal the money.

In total, Gao used 23 bank accounts and 39 transfers to move the money abroad in an effort to stop authorities from finding the money.

In total he moved over £3.5million before the family left for China.

Their first stop was Macau, known for its gambling, where they opened accounts with casinos, where they burned through a huge amount of cash.

Gao and Hurring first ended up at the gambling hub of Macau, where they opened accounts with local casinos and went on a gambling blow out.

At one point Hurring lost $101,000 (£88k) at Wynn’s International Casino.

Around £1.1million was deposited into a ‘player’s account’ under the name of Gao’s father, Alex Wang.

But Westpac soon discovered the error and alerted authorities, who issued an Interpol to find the couple.

As a result, Gao and Hurring made headlines across the world, and it seemed a lot of the public actually supported the pair, seeing their story as a kind of Robin Hood tale.

A Facebook page called We Support Leo Gao and his 10 Million Dollars – Run Leo Run was even set up.

Despite the police search the couple continued living the high life, and Hurring even flew out her sister Aroha to Hong Kong, where the siblings enjoyed a big shopping spree.

Aroha has since said she didn’t know how her sister come across such a large amount of cash until seeing a news report in China.

“I freaked out,” she said. “She told me the $10million had been put in Leo’s account by mistake.”

After authorities put a block on all the overseas account, the couple’s relationship apparently turned sour, and in May 2010, after 20 months on the run, Hurring handed herself into the police and returned to New Zealand.

Authorities had been unable to arrest Gao however, as he remained in China which has no extradition treaty with New Zealand.

But he soon made the mistake of travelling to Hong Kong, which does have a treaty, where he was finally arrested.

Gao returned to New Zealand and pleaded guilty to theft and told the court he had acted “like a d**k”.

He served 16 months in prison and was set free in 2013.

But Hurring, who used to help at the petrol station for free, maintained her innocence, saying Gao had told her he had won the lottery and knew nothing about the bank’s mistake.

She was found guilty of 25 counts of theft and three counts of attempting to dishonestly use documents and two counts of money laundering.

She was sentenced to nine months home detention and made to pay back round £6,000.

Speaking at court, Gao’s lawyer Ron Mansfield said the temptation to keep such an enormous amount of money was of Biblical proportions.

“Your Honour, some say the greatest temptation was faced by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden,” said Mansfield,” he said.

“But these are modern times for a man trying to keep the doors of his small business open, £5.13 million placed in his bank account was a very great temptation.”