Master Criminals!

Article published: 12:00 AM Wednesday May 27, 2009 

It's a golden grin from an unlikely international fugitive as Cara Yang nurses her daughter in a Facebook happy snap.

Cara and her partner Leo Gao haven't won Lotto, nor did they rob anyone.

But they are determined to spend an outrageous fortune thanks to a bungling Westpac bank. After Westpac mistakenly gave them a $10 million overdraft they withdrew $3 million and flew north for a slice of Hong Kong shopping heaven. On the run for three weeks, they just keep on running - and spending.

And they're now internet heroes, with many people getting behind them. With audacity to rival Great Train robber Ronnie Biggs, the couple has been bobbing up on Facebook to boast of their hoot with the loot. Their Facebook fan base has grown to three different sites dedicated to the internet's new champions of the underdog.

Cara Yang and her daughter Leena

On the site "Run Leo Run", Rachel Louise Haynie wrote: "Great story. Wish it would have happened to me! Wish them all the best." And there was this from Carlos Hamon: "Go Leo go! Don't look back and good luck."

But there was a blunt warning from Verna Angelique DeCook: "You will have to face reality eventually. The money will eventually get spent. then what?"

There's a sobering Australian legal precedent for the couple to ponder as they squander. The struggling service station owners were about to go bust. Now they're pumping Westpac for millions while becoming Facebook folk heroes.

These "have nots" suddenly "have" and, as their spree on the high life continues, powerless Kiwi cops can only beg for their return. Otherwise, the only thing New Zealand's finest could do was alert Interpol.

Leo, 29, and Cara, 30, are in no hurry to come home, ignoring the repeated police pleas. Last year a Sydney judge found in favour of Westpac and ordered North Coast real estate agent Victor Ollis to repay the bank after the accidental transfer of $11 million into his account. In similar circumstances, Westpac was intending to provide Mr Gao with a $100,000 overdraft. But a misplaced decimal point turned the approved amount into a whopping eight figure sum.

Ms Yang's mother, Sue Hurring, appealed for her "beautiful and honest" daughter to return home. "This was the crazy thing, she has never pinched a thing in her life - probably as a little girl, yes - but she is so honest, so honest," Ms Hurring said. Police have interviewed Ms Yang's sister Aroha Hurring who joined them. A technicality in the New Zealand law requires offenders to actually handle cash and a minor computer offence might be their only crime.

Westpac said "the customer" attempted to transfer amounts totalling around $NZ6.7 million, but the bank had managed to recover $NZ2.8 million.

Meanwhile, a 30-year-old Westpac bank employee is reportedly being counselled after becoming traumatised by his expensive error.

Source: The Daily Telegraph
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25545009-954,00.html