Checking your bank balance can be a traumatic time especially in the weeks after Christmas. But just imagine using your card and finding the bank has mistakenly given you thousands of pounds.

Most of us are likely to say we would give the money to charity or hand it back but how many of us really would if faced with the chance of clearing debts and getting away with it?

Car mechanic Dennis Clark was given nearly £40,000 and spent it before bankers discovered they had put it in there by mistake. Now he has 11 months in jail to mull over his bank balance.

No one supports any kind of theft but it would take a very strong willed person to say no to thousands. Clearly, crime of any form, doesn't pay off.