When we’re in our late teens, one problem we often have is a lack of money. We have so much ambition, but so little opportunity to actually fulfill said ambitions. Money makes the world go around, and money is tighter than ever for a lot of people. However, for one Belfast teenager, things changed pretty spectacularly overnight.
Dane Gillespie, 18, was heading down to check his bank account after his grandmother had made a deposit into his account. Wanting to see if it had gone through, he was going to check if his grandmother’s cheque for £8,900 had been processed. Checking his banking online, he noticed his bank balance appeared to show quite a bit more than the four-figure sum he was anticipated: instead, he found £8.9m sitting in his account instead.
Obviously, this was a mistake from the bank and – due to the world we live in – this was never going to stay in his account for too long. Within a few hours, it was zapped back out of his account, though for a few hours Mr. Gillespie got to enjoy living with the idea of being a millionaire.
Speaking about it was his mother, Caroline, who told Belfast Live: “My son thought he was a millionaire for a few hours. There was £8.9 million in his account on Wednesday morning. It’s as well he told us and didn’t go and blow it all. He’s only 18.
“He got a cheque from his grandmother for £8,900 and put the cheque in last Thursday. I said to him this morning, ‘that cheque should be cleared in your savings’ and he went, ‘right’.”
An Honest Mistake
If that money was to land in your account, think about what you could actually do with it. Given the state of the housing market, £8.9m would probably let you rent a one bedroom studio flat in London for about three weeks.
Jokes aside, it would give you all the security and protection that you could ever need in life. It would mean that you could buy a pretty new car, which is apparently what the young Irishman was already dreaming of trying out – perhaps a nice new fancy Porsche?
Sadly, if you happen to spend any of that ‘free’ cash given to you by mistake, you are obligated to pay it back. While it would be tempting to just go wild and live with the consequences later, it’s a testament to Dane and his family that he never managed to go wild with the money. Instead, he played it safe and, sadly, eventually had to give it all back.
Poor Dane. Not sure how I would react if I managed to see that kind of cash in my account. And, despite the fact you don’t get to keep any of it, it would feel like your dream has been torn away from you for a few moments afterward. Either way, it’s a comical story – and one that we’re sure Dane will remember for the rest of his days.
