Browse Sections

• Education
• James Chapman-Kelly
• Neil Roland
• Mancunian candidate
• Special reports

Cash mountain for tiny Max

Miles Skinner
23/ 6/2005

MAX O'Bern, 12, was amazed to find his bank balance swollen by a £1,765.50 cheque from a Swiss bank he had never heard of.

Payment was made, the statement said, for 'completion of roof' and the beneficiary was listed as Atlas Survey and Building Services. Max and his mother Gillian popped outside of their home on Whitchurch Road, Withington, but their roof was much as it had always been and they were left perplexed.

Gillian, 49, said: "We went into Nat West in Withington to see if we could sort things out, but they weren't really able to help us. It's a good job he's not the kind of boy to run out and buy an X-Box."

Dad Dave, 47, added: "We gather it was processed somewhere in Liverpool and they can't reverse it. He won't be keeping it - it belongs to someone else and they will eventually discover their mistake and reclaim it."

Max, a pupil at Parrs Wood Technology School, gets £12 a month in pocket money. But even with the temptation of all the bikes, sweets and cinema tickets he could handle, he is happy to leave the money sitting in the bank.

"It's not mine and I can't keep it. It will have to be returned one day. If I did have that much money I would buy some games and get some treats for my family," he said.

Helen Campbell, manager of Withington Nat West, declined to comment, but a spokesman for the bank said: "We apologise to Max O'Bern for not acting more promptly on notification of this error. The funds have now been taken from his account and the matter is being investigated internally."