Luke Aldridge had a fight with his partner before he took off for Amsterdam.  Just when it seemed like nothing was going to go his way, he checked his bank balance and discovered an error in his favor.  It seems his bankers at the Abbey (now called Santander), had mistakenly deposited £18200 meant for a construction company into his account in error.  So, he did what any of us would do in that situation, he withdrew the money and gambled it away as fast as he could, blowing through the fortune in roughly two hours playing high-stakes blackjack and poker.

Honestly, I can’t blame him.  Neither could Judge Mark Eades, who said, “One could well understand why you could not resist the temptation to take money from your account.”  The judge then added, “But that is not an excuse,” before smacking Luke with two years’ probation and over 150 hours of community service.

While that seems like it’s a lot for someone else’s mistake, it’s better than what he could’ve gotten for the eight counts of theft he plead guilty to!  It’s really easy to lose a lot of money fast while gambling, given how people just focus in on what they’re doing and ignore everything going on around them.

Image: Ian Kennedy

Tags: Amsterdam, Netherlands, Luke Aldridge, man gambles away £18200 in two hours, bank errors, man charged after bank error money is spent, Abbey, Santander, Judge Mark Eades

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