Man gambled away £20,000 in two hours after finding money in his account

Photo: PA

Luke Aldridge, 26, was on trip to Amsterdam following a row with his partner when he checked his bank balance and discovered he was heavily in the black.

Aldridge then withdrew nearly all the cash spending more than £18,200 playing blackjack and poker in casinos in the Dutch capital before the error was discovered in June last year.

Inquiries revealed the Abbey, now rebranded as Santander, had mistakenly transferred the funds into Aldridge's account from a construction company.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court, Aldridge, of Telford, Shropshire admitted eight charges of theft.

He was sentenced to a community order for 24 months with supervision and ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work.

His counsel Mr Wynn Price-Rowland said: ''An addicted gambler spending a few days in Amsterdam discovers funds totalling £20,000 has been wrongly placed in his account. It became too much of a temptation for him.

Judge Mark Eades said: ''One could well understand why you could not resist the temptation to take money from your account. But that is not an excuse.''