Shocked Barnsley man discovers £1.25MILLION in his bank account – but doesn’t spend it!

Shocked Kieran McKeefery’s bank balance had been boosted by an incoming cash transfer of £1,245,000.

After mulling over what he could spend the cash on, the 21-year-old South Yorkshire web designer phoned his bank NatWest and asked it to investigate.

Bank bosses told him the enormous bank-to-bank same-day payment had come from a huge investment company and it was up to the company’s bank to take it back.

It was an 10 days before the company retrieved the cash – leaving Kieran with a bonus £204 of interest.

Honest Kieran, from Barnsley, said: “I checked my online banking and immediately I noticed I had £1.25 million in the bank.

“I was a bit fazed at first. It was such a copious amount of money to be in my bank.

“It was very strange and quite scary when you are in that position, checking your bank to see if £1.25 million is in there.

“I didn’t know what to do, except just wait and think about all the things I could have spent it on.

“I thought ‘oh god, what has happened’ – I was a bit shocked more than anything else.

“I called the bank and NatWest said it would look into it.

“I was kind of tempted to spend the money but I had read stories about people spending money mistakenly placed in their accounts and getting in trouble.

“I spoke to my partner and she said to just leave it there and don’t touch it.

“I was buying a new car the next day and I could have paid for it in cash – and bought quite a few more – with the money.

“The bank wasn’t really playing ball. It was a bit crazy really.

“I had all this money in my account. The bank said it had made the request to the payee’s bank and I just had to wait. The bank said it was up to the investment company to sort it.”

The payment was marked as ‘CHAPS – a Clearing House Automated Payment System.

NatWest said it would alert the payee’s bank of the mistake – but that it was up to the company to take it back.

During the next 10 days, Kieran called his bank in a bid to speed up the move, but it was not until February 6 the cash disappeared, leaving him with £204 interest.

“The interest was pretty good really and they haven’t asked for it back,” said Kieran.