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Student charged after she mistakenly received nearly $1,000,000 in her bank account and decided to spend it all
A student is facing legal repercussions after $1 million was mistakenly deposited into her bank account.
Despite the risk of being prosecuted for fraud, a South African student made the decision most youngsters would when an eye-watering sum of cash landed in her bank account by mistake.
In 2017, Sibongile Mani, a student at Walter Sisulu University (WSU), found herself seemingly stinking rich overnight when a payment error caused 14 million rands ($1 million) to be deposited in her bank account.
Mani was reliant on benefits when the money landed
At the time, Mani, then 27, used benefits to cover her tuition fees and living costs, receiving around 1,400 rands ($100) to spend on essential supplies. Everything changed when the skint student checked her bank balance to find that the government’s financial aid scheme had accidentally sent her a life-changing amount of money.
Understandably, Mani got straight to spending the staggering sum. She treated herself and her friends to designer handbags, a new iPhone and concert tickets.
Samkelo Mqhayi, a secretary of the South African Students Congress, told Herald Live at the time: “She threw surprise birthday parties for her friends and showered them with expensive gifts and flew them to events where she bought the best seats.
“When the receipt was leaked showing a balance of R13.6 million ($1,050,000) in her account, I called the NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid Scheme), and they checked their records and confirmed that the initial amount was R14 million ($1,080,000).”
And just like that, 73 days and $40,000 later, the student was caught out after dropping a bank receipt at a supermarket. Mani was reported to the police and charged with theft and fraud later the same year.
Five years later, in 2022, Mani, who is now a mother of two, was sentenced to five years in jail; a decision which her lawyer, Asanda Pakade, appealed. In a statement made outside the court following the sentencing, Pakade described it as “shocking”, insisting: “To us, her being found guilty does not make sense.”
Mani did not go to prison for her compulsive spending
It was eventually decided at the High Court in Makhanda in 2023 that Mani's sentence would be suspended on the condition that she not be convicted of fraud or theft during those five years.
Mani was spared jail by the jury as, according to News 24, the student was “sitting with an empty stomach.” Pakade said at the time the money arrived in her bank account, she “couldn’t even afford to buy a quarter of a loaf of brown bread.”
Rather than being banged up, Mani was forced to complete 576 hours of community service and attend regular counseling and rehabilitative programmes.
Judge Sally Collett said: “While it would be undesirable to understate the behaviour of Mani, which was unquestionably the result of conscious and calculated decision-making, it is doubtful whether incarceration would satisfy the interests of justice.”