After a legal battle that lasted over three years, an Employee in Chile has been allowed to keep the huge amount of money—300 times his salary—which was mistakenly deposited in his account by his employer.
The employee worked as an assistant at Dan Consorcio Industrial de Alimentos de Chile. Instead of his usual salary of about £386 per month, his employer erroneously deposited £127,000 to his account in May of 2022.
The said employee quit the job three days later without returning the money as he had promised. He was, therefore, accused of stealing. The court case that followed lasted three years at the end which the ruling was in favour of the employee!
It was observed that since the money was merely “unauthorised collection” he could not be accused of stealing it.
Therefore, the employee’s act could not be called theft, nor could it be seen as a ‘criminal offence’.
The employer, however, is not resting easy. The company is willing to go to any legal length possible to get back the money. It is also keen to file for the present judgement to be annulled and is demanding a review.
