A father who treated himself to designer gifts when £212,000 was paid into his account in error has been jailed for eight weeks after also being convicted of stealing a debit card.
Ghislain Ngamayamu, 29, received the windfall payment from a medical care company. He called the bank to inform them of the error, but then wrote himself a cheque for £42,000, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Ngamayamu spent £4,000 of the money on designer gear, including a Gucci belt and goods from Versace . But he claims he gave the rest to his brother to fund a sports academy in Africa.
Prosecutor Martin Pinfold said the £212,000 transfer was made by a medical care company, which believed the payment was going to one of its contractors. He went on: “It in fact ended up in an account called Premier over which the defendant had control.”
Ngamayamu, who has a one-year-old child, was also convicted of stealing a debit card left by a customer at WH Smith in Euston where he worked. Defence counsel Jonathan Ingram asked the judge to take into account the “extraordinary circumstances of the bank’s behaviour”. He added: “Your honour will recall the evidence that my client in fact paid most of the money to his brother to sent to Africa to open a sports academy.”
Ngamayamu, of Westbourne Park, was sentenced to eight weeks suspended for 18 months for one count of transferring criminal property.
But he received a further eight weeks in custody to run concurrently for theft of the debit card.
