Factory worker finds £65,000 accidentally paid to his account out of nowhere

AFTER hearing rumours his employer was preparing to handout a sizeable bonus, a factory worker couldn’t believe his eyes as £65,000 landed in his account.

Vladimir Rychagov was expecting to be paid about £440 that he was owed as holiday pay but was overjoyed as he accidentally received £65,000.

He was head of department at Severavtodor company, on five-day unpaid leave at the time the incident occurred back in January.

His delight was short lived as he was reportedly inundated with calls from the accounting department informing him the money had been transferred by mistake.

Vladimir proposed the business in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, deduct 20% of his monthly income but the offer was refused.

According to court documents submitted by the factory worker’s employer, the big bucks Vladimir received were intended to pay the salaries of 34 employees at a completely different branch.

Management claimed Vladimir should have returned the money but after doing a deep dive on the internet he decided against it.

He said: ” After checking the internet, I found that if it was a technical error, it was up to me to return it, but if it was a billing error, I was obligated to return it.

“Later, I learned it was a technical error and decided I had the right to keep the money.”

The factory argued Vladimir mistakenly received the money due to a software glitch so therefore he was obligated to return it.

Vladimir argued he secured the funds in the name of the company and not a specific branch; they were listed as, “salary” in the payment order, so he claimed he was entitled to them.

The lucky factory worker alleged the companies pleas to send the money back soon turned to threats, so he splashed the cash on a new motor, changed his phone number and moved to a new city with his family in tow.

He said they were worried for their safety and, “after all it was a lot of money.”

While they fled the alleged threats he was slapped with a lawsuit by the factory and his bank accounts were frozen.

Vladimir said: “A complaint was filed against me, alleging that I was in collusion with an accountant and committed some kind of economic fraud.”

He later said these accusations were dismissed due to lack of evidence.

A lengthy court battle ensued with the courts of first instance and appeal siding with the employer.

They both noted there were no overdue payments owed to the worker at the end of the reporting period and £65,000 was not considered salary- he was obligated to repay it.

The ruling has now been appealed to the Supreme Court, where it has been accepted for consideration.

Vladimir believes he is entitled to the cash and has no plans to return it.

Roman Tudachkov, the companies acting CEO, said: “There was no 13th salary involved; it was an erroneous transfer.

“We have a court order; we operate within the legal system through our legal department. His interpretation is strange, but I repeat, we will handle this through the legal system.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling will determine whether the former head of department will keep the money wired to his account in the bizarre transfer fluke.

This comes as a bartender, who lived like a rockstar after exploiting an ATM glitch to send himself millions said he has no regrets- and only got caught because he came clean.

Dan Saunders was drinking with a pal in Wangaratta, Australia, when he tried to transfer $200 (£96) from his credit card to his current account to pay for a round.

In a rare fluke the cash point glitched and returned his card, depositing the money in his current account without affecting his bank balance.

Four months later, he’d spent $1.6m (£775,000) on private jets, hotel suites, and lavish parties – living a rockstar lifestyle on the bank’s money.

He told The Sun: “It was like Christmas. It was an amazing feeling.

“I knew it was wrong but I also knew that it was the greatest feeling that I’ve ever had in my life.

“I was walking around as an average guy one day, and then suddenly you’ve got all this money, and you’re desirable to people that would normally never look at you twice.”

Elsewhere, an office worker was accidentally paid 330 times his usual wage- but then got to keep it after he called it quits.

The man had worked as an assistant at food company Dan Consorcio Industrial de Alimentos de Chile.

He was usually paid £386 per month but on a lucky pay day his boss sent him a whopping £127,000.