A bank had given a woman a cheque for $20,000 when the amount should have been only $200. This report appeared on the front page, this day in 1976.
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The matter was presented in the ACT Supreme Court. The solicitor, Mr Bernard Cairns, told Mr Justice Connor, that the woman, Miss Marie France Milliet of Dickson, had already spent almost half the $20,000 and that the bank's accountant, Mr Gregory Higgins, believed that unless she was stopped she would spend it all.
An affadavit from Mr Higgins was read to the judge in an ex parte application by the Bank of New South Wales to restrain Miss Milliet and her bank, the Canberra City branch of the Commercial Bank of Sydney from operating the account into which the money was paid.
It said that the Sydney headquarters of the Bank of New South Wales had received a telex message from a Noumea Bank, asking it to pay "Australian dollars 20000" to Miss Milliet. A slip in reading the code had caused the decimal to be omitted when the cheque was being prepared.
Mr Higgins had explained the mistake to Miss Milliet. She had refused to pay back the overpayment.
