Bank teller unlikely to be sacked

Article published: 9:59AM Friday May 22, 2009 

Bank blunder not cause for dismissal

The bank worker responsible for a Rotorua couple being given $10 million in error is unlikely to be sacked, Finance workers' union Finsec says.

A service station owner and his girlfriend are believed to have skipped the country after gaining the multi-million windfall through a Westpac bank blunder.

Finsec's Andrew Campbell says the union has raised issues over the bank's loan process system with it recently, and it is an area the bank itself has been cracking down on.

Campbell thinks the transfer was probably was a data entry mistake and he says the bank worker responsible unlikely to be sacked.

"It's not uncommon in the day-to-day business of data entry in a bank for mistakes to be made," Campbell says.

"The general rule in relation to negligence is that if there's not intention, assuming there wasn't, then that's normally not gross misconduct, so generally wouldn't be a dismissible offence."

Campbell says several factors would be taken into account, such as the worker's previous record at the bank.

"There's no black and white answer," he said.

"If this person does end up being a Finsec member and we're asked to represent them, it's the sort of thing that, on the face of it, there'd be a reasonable degree of mitigating evidence."

The unnamed couple, believed to be Asian man "Leo" Gao, perhaps in his 30s, and his Kiwi girlfriend Kara (or Cara) Young, have not been seen since a $10,000 business overdraft application was mistakenly loaded as $10 million.

It has been reported that Westpac had recovered $4 million, but $6 million was missing.

Finsec says it wants to talk to Westpac about recent internal changes over its paper trails on loans in the wake of the blunder.

Source: NZPA / Newstalk ZB
http://tvnz.co.nz/content/2752460?page=9&pagesize=5