Friday, May 24, 2013

Gao pleads guilty to theft

Posted at 10:18am Tuesday 12th Jun, 2012

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Former Rotorua petrol station owner Leo Gao has pleaded guilty to seven charges of theft.

Gao was dubbed the ‘Runaway Millionaire’ when he fled the country after Westpac Bank mistakenly loaded a $10 million overdraft onto his account in 2009.

Along with partner Kara Hurring, the pair left the country with more than $6 million.

Gao was arrested crossing from China to Hong Kong in September 2011, following a two and half year police investigation.

The arrest came after an Interpol red alert was triggered when he tried to cross the border.

He was extradited back to New Zealand to face 16 counts of theft and 11 of money laundering in relation to the transferring of the money into separate accounts.

He has entered a guilty plea to seven counts of theft during an appearance in the Auckland District Court today.

Gao has been released on bail and is due to be sentenced in the Rotorua District Court on August 24.

Comments

Don't the banks just print that stuff?

Posted on 14-06-2012 15:17 | By SpeakUp

The banksters create money out of thin air and therefore rip off anyone who works hard for his money. They should go to jail first, including the polit shills who enable their existence: thttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sGY8uCwy2NY#!

Morepork - seriously?

Posted on 12-06-2012 16:12 | By Dawn

I don’t think to ANY business $6 million is just ’petty cash’ and I am pretty certain if i made a $6 million dollar mistake in MY job - i wouldn’t be there for long. Get real Morepork - anyone would definitely notice that sort of money in their bank account - and it IS stealing to run off with it.

Good Try

Posted on 12-06-2012 14:00 | By Me2

Still can’t believe how they thought they’d get away with that? $10 maybe but $10 million???

Is it me?

Posted on 12-06-2012 13:12 | By morepork

... but I can’t get a sense of outrage about this crime. My head knows what he did was wrong, but my heart kind of sympathises. I’d like to think I wouldn’t make the same kind of judgement error but there is a tiny part of me that would be tempted. $6 million dropped in your lap is definitely a temptation. To Westpac it is petty cash (I know that doesn’t make it right; stealing petty cash is just as bad as embezzling millions), but it isn’t like he presented a firearm at a teller, or mugged somebody. I guess my point is that the couple involved are not REAL criminals in the sense that we need to lock our doors and windows against them. If Mr. Gao gets jail (and he probably will because of all the inconvenience and expense he has caused) I hope it isn’t too long. I wonder if the person who made the error is still working at Westpac? (I’m not suggesting they should be fired; anybody can make a mistake) but if Westpac recognise that their staff can make errors, maybe they can recognise that their customers can too?

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