€18million in ‘available funds’ mistakenly appears in Galway woman’s bank account

What would you do if you went to check your balance and found €18million had been put into your account in error?

We’re no strangers to banking errors in Ireland. As you know only too well, up to now they have ended up costing all of us a lot of money. But what happens if the banking error goes in your favour? In a really big way. What do you do?

That was the dilemma that faced Laura Hughes from Athenry in Galway, according to today’s Irish Independent. The full-time carer and mother of two went to check if the carers allowance she recieves for her autistic son Shay had been paid on Thursday morning only to discover that she had she had €18,099,425.99 in 'available funds' in her Ulster Bank account.

"I nearly died," said Hughes. "Before I went to bed on Wednesday night I had 35c in my account, but when I checked on Thursday morning I thought I was seeing things. First I thought it was €18,500 but I quickly realised I had over €18m in the bank."

So, what would you do. Buy a Ferrari, fly to Brazil, offer to pay Robin van Persie’s wages at Arsenal nest season? (That last one might be just me). Firstly Hughes transferred €9,000, to check it was real. The transfer went through. Then, she set off to buy a car, a €9,000 Nissan Micra to be precise.

"I actually went into a Nissan dealership in Galway to buy a car worth €8,950 and I was so close to going through with it,” she said. “I had visited two other dealerships before that. I have a battered car at the moment with no windows in it and it's falling to bits.

"I've been saving for a car for years and I was so tempted, you have no idea. But my gut instinct wouldn't let me do it."

Hughes instead went in to the bank to tell them about the mistake.

"The money was in my account for five hours. I went in to see somebody in the bank but they said they didn't have time to see me.

"But when I told her what it was about she ran off to get the manager and he immediately freaked out.

"They kept me there for about an hour trying to figure out what was going on and how it happened -- they were completely panicked. The bank told me it was simply human error. One of their employees opened up an overdraft facility for me of €20m.”

But not spending the money was very wise. According to the experts, Hughes would have been liable to pay back any of the money if she had spent any, so if this remarkable mistake happens to you, fight the temptation to splurge.