Police hunt couple fleeing bank error
Reporting by Belinda GoldsmithSYDNEY (Reuters) - New Zealand police have launched an international search for a couple who fled with millions of dollars after NZ$10 million (US$6.05 million) was accidentally deposited into their bank account.
Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey of New Zealand Police said in a statement on Thursday that an investigation team was working with Westpac Bank on the case.
New Zealand's news agency NZPA said the couple, who ran a gas station in the northern city of Rotorua, had applied to Westpac Bank for a NZ$10,000 overdraft but 1,000 times that amount was paid into their account in error.
"The individuals associated with this account are believed to have left New Zealand and police (are) working through Interpol to locate those individuals," Harvey said in a statement.
"Westpac Bank has recovered some of the money which had been inappropriately withdrawn."
He refused to say how much of the money had been recovered or give any other details. He would not comment on which country the couple may have fled to.
But local newspaper The Rotorua Review quoted a source saying that a police liaison officer was sent to China recently to search for the couple.
Westpac refused to confirm the amount of money missing but in a statement said the bank was "pursuing vigorous criminal and civil action to recover the sum of money stolen."
Banking ombudsman Liz Brown told Rotorua's The Daily Post newspaper that generally it was a criminal offence for people to spend money that was accidentally put into their bank account if they knew it did not belong to them.
In her 15 years as banking ombudsman she said she had been involved in 10 to 20 cases of this kind which were legally referred to as "payment by mistake."
Park plays high-pitch tone to discourage vandals
Reporting by Yoko Kubota
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Tokyo park has started playing a high-pitched tone at night that only young people can hear to help drive away teenagers who keep vandalizing the toilets and other facilities.
"We were having trouble improving the situation and trying to decide what to do, when we found out about The Mosquito and decided to give it a try," said Haruyuki Masuda, an official in charge of parks in Tokyo's Adachi district.
"The Mosquito" is a device that emits a high-frequency tone that is unbearable to those who can hear it, Masuda said.
The local authorities decided to act after young people hanging out in the district's Kitashikahama Park inflicted damage amounting to around 700,000 yen ($7,400) there last year.
"We could not do anything about it from just patrolling," Masuda said.
People's ability to hear high frequencies falls as they age. The device produces a high-pitch tone of around 17 kilohertz, which teens can hear but older people cannot.
While such devices are used at some convenience stores in Japan also troubled by teens, Masuda said district officials were hesitant at first.
"We were a little worried about whether the local government should be using such a device to exclude certain people, even if these are young people that are causing problems," Masuda said.
"But we have been unable to resolve the issue and many people said we should try it," he said, adding that the device would be tested at the park from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. each night until March 2010.
Flight attendant jailed for bomb hoax
Reporting by Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) - A flight attendant was jailed for 18 months on Thursday for leaving a bomb hoax note on board an Emirates aircraft he was working on and sparking a scare that led to London's Gatwick Airport briefly closing.
Australian national Matthew Carney, 24, left a message in the toilet of a flight from Dubai to London in March which read: "Explosive material can be found in the FWD (forward cargo department). We have the Taliban to thank for this."
A passenger on board the Boeing 777 found the note 10 minutes before the plane was due to land and raised the alarm. When the flight arrived at Gatwick it was taken to a secure holding area and surrounded by armed police.
The 164 passengers and 16 crew were taken off the plane and interviewed and Carney was arrested shortly afterwards.
He pleaded guilty to communicating false information, namely a bomb hoax, at Lewes Crown Court, police said.
The court was told that earlier in the flight Carney told his co-workers he had "found" wires hanging down from behind a mirror in a toilet in the economy section, the Press Association reported.
But senior cabin crew members who inspected the area found the wires were not attached to anything and the plane carried on to Britain.
Prosecutor Dale Sullivan said that because of the earlier incident, Carney was arrested and his luggage searched.
Inside a pair of his shorts was found a piece of paper with the words "Cargo contains explosives," which handwriting experts linked to the note left in the toilet.
His lawyer Andel Singh said Carney had been under a great deal of stress and was "extremely tired" at the time having worked on flights on different time schedules throughout the world.
"He apologizes wholeheartedly and sincerely to all those individuals who were even the slightest bit inconvenienced," Singh said.
Sullivan said the hoax had left Emirates with a bill for 42,000 pounds ($66,340) for arranging ongoing flights and other measures, while some passengers were left with a fear of flying and said they would never set foot on an aircraft again.
Schoolboy Alfie not father of baby after all
Reporting by Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) - Schoolboy Alfie Patten, who made headlines earlier this year when it was reported he had got his girlfriend pregnant when aged just 12, is not the baby's father after all, the Sun said Tuesday.
In February, media said Patten's 15-year-old girlfriend Chantelle Stedman had fallen pregnant after a night of unprotected sex, possibly making Patten Britain's youngest father when she gave birth to daughter Maisie.
"I thought it would be good to have a baby. I didn't think about how we would afford it," he told the Sun at the time.
"I don't really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me 10 pounds."
But after the story was reported, other boys came forward to say they had had sex with Stedman.
The Sun said DNA tests had now revealed that Patten was not the baby's father. Instead Maisie is the daughter of another schoolboy, Tyler Barker, who was 14 at the time Stedman conceived.
The results were revealed after a judge lifted a court injunction and said Patten was "extremely distressed" at the news.
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