Student arrested for blowing gargantuan money mistakenly paid into her account

Andreas Kamasah 14:46 - 30 May 2018

28-year-old Sibongile Mani was arrested by the police’s serious commercial crime unit on Tuesday, after it was detected that the National Students Financial Aid Scheme of which she was a beneficiary had mistakenly paid $1.1 million into her bank account.

A student of Walter Sisulu University in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa has made her first appearance in court following her arrest after she reportedly spent part of a colossal money a government agency had wrongly paid into her account.

Reports say upon realizing that her account had been credited with the said amount, the woman made no effort to check with the scheme for clarification. She quickly engaged in extravagant expenditure on expensive clothing, a smartphone and partying which consumed $63,000 of the fund.

The suspect reportedly qualified for 1,400-rand ($110) in monthly food allowances last year and has since been benefitting from the National Students Financial Aid Scheme.

Spokeswoman for an elite police unit of South Africa, the Hawks, is reported to have told AFP that it took the scheme about three months to figure out the error.