POLICE DISCOVER THAT THIS FOREIGN STUDENT’S LAVISH LIFESTYLE HAD A SCANDALOUS SOURCE AFTER ALL

 

We all know that it is never wise to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes the cover is all that we see. Hence, it gets tricky to not judge someone by their looks. We have all met someone or the other who did not turn out to be so, based on our first impression. When we encounter a person who is garbed in fine jewelry and designer clothes, it is fairly easy to assume what kind of person they are. However, they can sometimes surprise, just like this college student right here…

First Impression

Meet Christine. If you meet her you could quickly guess what type of person she is. People had a lot of opinions and had a lot to say about Christine’s lifestyle. She could not blame them because of the way she presented herself. However, there was a deep dark criminal secret that she was keeping from others and this ended up becoming an obstacle in her life…

Living THE Life

As we all know clothing and the way we choose to dress has become the first thing we notice about anyone around us. Since this is so, it was fair that everyone in Christine’s college was labeling her to be the type of girl who was sort of fashionista around the campus. Since she always dressed up and looked nice every day, her peers looked at her as someone who only loves fashion.

Living In Designer Wear

If you saw her, you would definitely be with this train of people who thought Christine was a materialistic classmate. And to be honest, she did seem to be that way. She would often attend her classes, putting on her Christian Louboutin heels, carrying the top-notch designer handbags, and she even used a Moschino case on her smartphone. The Hermes Birkin bag she bought was retailed at $1,500.

In A Day…

Since Christine was still in college, everyone around her thought it was a little unnecessary for her to spend all of this money on irrelevant stuff. It was also quite unusual that a college student was able to spend so much on something like a purse. Even though her spending was questioned a lot, her friends assumed that she was in fact, bankrolled by her uber-wealthy parents.

A Secret!

For a college kid to be able to pay for her tuition fees and still manage to buy herself all of the luxury goods, it was clear that Christine’s family had a lot in the bank. She must have received a hefty allowance because one time, she went inside a Christian Dior shop in Sydney, spending more than $220,000 there. As you may have guessed, she really did have a secret!

Sydney Student

Christine, although appears to be a spoiled girl, has a few characteristics that people should aspire to attain. For a girl who was just 21 years old, she had already paved her way into her college career. She was all the way from Malaysia but Christine had moved thousands of miles away to Australia. She came to the outback to pursue her studies in Chemical Engineering at Sydney University.

Not From Her Parents

She was spending an insane amount on all these clothes and bags that it would make people who came from humble beginnings in her college, uncomfortable. She was getting a lot of support from her parents back home but they clearly were not sending her hundreds of thousands to throw away on high priced accessories and clothing. There was something wrong.

Extravagance

Since Christine was so accustomed to buying whatever she wanted, she did not think about how other people would look at her. Her extravagant purchase habits were slowly starting to pile up and yes everybody around her was starting to take notice. Well, she could not expect them not to. Would you not take notice if someone you saw every day kept wearing luxury clothing, jewelry or bags?

How Can She Afford?

Christine’s dorm room was slowly filled with her multiple designer handbags, expensive clothes, high-end jewelry, the latest mobile phones, and a top-of-the-line vacuum cleaner. Her possessions were stuffing up the whole room and it was slowly talked about by her college mates.  The biggest question being asked was how she could afford all of these?

Unlimited

Christine did not see anything wrong with the way she was spending her money. She did not feel like she was at fault as she thought it was her right to spend her own money however she wanted. The funds in her account were exceeding a little bit further more than they had in the past, so she just assumed that she was secretly being transferring more money by her loving parents.

Something Was Wrong

Like every child gets happy to receive a little more than their regular allowance, Christine was very pleased with her parents and so she did not even bother asking them. A few months later, since the huge sum of money kept flowing into her account, she started to realize that something was wrong. She slowly started questioning where the money came from.

Mad Money

Within a span of around 11 months, Christine Jiaxin Lee had indulged herself with a multimillion-dollar spending spree. The amount that she spent was no joke and she enjoyed every minute of this lavish lifestyle. She bought herself several Hermes, Chanel, and Dior products that she could find. She was a bit of a brand freak who took anything with a designer’s name on it.

Someone’s Money

As we have mentioned earlier, Christine’s spending became a little too much that even she started to question herself. The amount she spent on bags alone could even buy a luxurious house! She had stuffed her dorm room with bags and everything luxurious that her whole spending amounted to a whopping 4.6 million dollars. This was sadly someone else’s money.

Bank Errors

So all that she had spent was actually not her money nor was it her parents’ money. She had been blindly treating herself like a princess with money that never belonged to her in the first place. What actually took place was that Christine’s bank had by chance given her a bit of an extension on their overdraft limit which was in a way, limitless.

No Limits

So this basically meant that she could use any sum of money, that there was no roof and the sky was the limit for her spending. For most of us, we would try to buy houses and cars but for Christine, her priorities were set on bags and designer goods. For about one year, this college student savored every minute of this bank error, buying everything and anything she wanted with no second thoughts.

Picked Up

We all have heard the saying ‘All good things come to an end’, right? Well, yes nothing lasts forever and Christine would understand this very clearly. She had spent almost $5 million at that point and it must have been heaven on earth for her. The bank took notice of the error in April of the following year, however, all the damage that could happen had already taken place.

Not Going To Be Happy

When the bank came to know about the error, they were quick to try and fix the issue. They reached out to Christine and immediately started interrogating her with what she had done with all the money. One of the senior managers who worked at the bank made a call to Ms. Lee demanding to know what she bought with all the millions. He was in for a huge surprise…

Time to Go

When they called her up, Christine absolutely refused to talk to the bank. She knew she was committing a crime so she did not want to speak to the managers of the bank who wanted to know about her spending. As soon as she realized that the jig was up, she tried her hardest to quickly get back to her hometown of Malaysia.

The Jig Is Up

Since she was not a clueless girl, Christine was able to immediately get a grant of an emergency Malaysian passport. However, things did not go as she planned because before she could dash out of the country undetected, the bank had already sent the police to come and hunt her down. How would you feel if you knew you were getting caught while living in a foreign country?

Arrested

Even before she could do anything or attempt another escape, Christine had been caught. She was stopped by the police after just a few days. After doing an excessive amount of spending with someone else’s money, Christine was arrested in the May of 2015 at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport. She was caught as she tried to board a flight to Malaysia.

Just In Time

It was all about timing and she was just not fast enough. She almost made it out but the police got to her in time. She must have struggled a lot considering the amount of designer bags she had packed into her suitcase. The police now had to investigate and uncover the true extent of the damage Christine had committed. It was unfortunate but it was bound to happen…

Authentically Seized

The police did all that they could to hopefully get to the bottom of all this mess. She had spent loads of money all those months and they were about to get the shock of their lives from this college undergrad. While she was kept in the custody of the police, she was questioned and interrogated by the investigating officers. During this time, the police also went to Christine’s home.

Handbags For Days!

At Christine’s place, they found a number of designer gear that was appropriate for a queen. They were shocked by the number of bags they found inside. The police also realized that these bags were the real deal as the also found that they were accompanied by certificates of authenticity. Only authentic designer wear sold in showrooms and boutiques have these certificates in them.

Big Fat Problem

As soon as she was caught at the airport, Christine did not have any other choice but to just give in and admit to all that she had done. The senior banking officials took the culprit in the police custody and they were sure that she’d be dealt with properly. However, even after they seized her, there was yet another problem they had to deal with.

Retrieving Some

The story somehow reached the media airwaves. So there were bound to be multiple variations of this crime that this college student had knowingly or unknowingly committed. All that they could do now was to accept the fact that this was a “big, fat banking error.” In the end, they were able to save a few million that the criminal had stolen.

Dishonesty Dollars

As she was a college student, Christine Lee was clearly not a fool. She was actually smart enough not to spend 4.6 million on just shoes and bags. She made a very clever move in trying to secure all the money she had received in her account. What she actually did was, transfer some of the millions she received into different private accounts.

Solid Evidence

Christine did all she could to try and keep at least some of the portions that ended up flooding her bank account. After a thorough investigation, the bank found $1.3 million of it in several of these private accounts, but not all of the amount. They could finally get proof after this that she was aware that the money she received was not hers but continued to live off of it anyway.

Flaunting It

When she was called for a hearing, Ms. Lee came to the court wearing ripped jeans, a pair of white canvas shoes, and a black singlet. The wrist and ankle tattoos she had inked on herself were visible and she had a pink, fluffy keychain attached to her light brown backpack. She appeared to be quite carefree, like all of this was not her fault.

The Trial

She was clearly projecting her guilt along with her blatant disregard for the proceedings in the court that was about to begin. It is amazing to see her dressed this way even after all the money she used up had been proven not to be hers. One thing you can say is that Christine is ballsy. Even after all of this happened, the trial did not end as anyone expected…

Confident

Christine’s lawyer, Hugo Aston had already been in talks with the press even before the trial took place confirming that event the parents of his client were in support of their daughter. He was also sure that Christine would be excused from all of this crime. He went on saying that, “We feel confident our client will be acquitted…”

A Bold Statement

When the evidence was so clear, it is remarkable to see the lawyer still so confident. He completely ignored the fact that Christine was at fault and was well aware of all her illegal spending. He even added, “We are very much a united team.” This was such a shocking and quite frankly a bold statement to have made considering the damage his client had caused.

Charges Dropped

The disrespectful student had a defense which stated that there had been no deception at all. She maintained that she actually believed her money was coming from her parents all along. Ultimately, the attorney for Westpac bank made a decision to have the criminal charges against Christine dropped. They did so because they wanted a future civil suit to be secured. There was another reason too…

Similar Verdicts

This decision was not just based on the fact that they hoped to have a better luck in civil court either. The charges had been dropped on this student because of a similar case. There was a case where a man had been charged with fraud for withdrawing $2.1 million from ATMs. Since this case had not ended well for the bank, how could they win over Christine Lee?

Moving Home

So for now, Westpac bank had been working hard to hopefully get back the $4.6 million they had lost. Christine Jiaxin Lee, however, moved back to Malaysia. Since the charges had been dropped, she was grateful that she could live a scot-free life… Although the chances of her returning her items are unclear, there is something that is for sure…

Bank’s Fault

After the bank had dropped all of the charges that they pinned against Christine, it looked as though they were at fault the whole time. It really does seem as though the bank was not properly doing their work in the first place. They clearly have to make some changes and adopt better policies on the topic of overdraft and also account monitoring.

Remaining Questions

What could have happened if it was not Christine but somebody else who had overspent on her account? Even though there was sure-shot proof everywhere pinpointing Christine’s fault, many people still believe that she was a victim of some sort of identity theft which the bank is afraid to go in-depth with because of a leak in security. This is highly possible, right?