A tired German bank employee fell asleep on his keyboard and accidentally transformed a minor transfer into a 222 million euro ($293 million) order.
The Hessen labour court heard that the man was supposed to transfer just 62.40 euros from a bank account belonging to a retiree, but instead ‘fell asleep for an instant, while pushing onto the number 2
key on the keyboard’—making it a huge 222,222,222.22 euro order, reports Agence France-Presse.
The bank rectified the mistake soon afterward. It also fired the supervisor of the clerk for failing to spot the error, claiming that she (supervisor) did not carefully check the transfer payments and therefore deceived her bosses, the report said.
The 48-year supervisor took her case to court and pointed out that her job entailed quickly checking hundreds of documents, the report said. That meant spending only seconds scanning each one.
The labor court called the error ‘a terrible mistake’ but ruled the supervisor never intended to cause ‘deliberate harm’ to the bank. The court ordered that she be given her old job back.
-With New Age input
