UK bank worker paid double pay for 3yrs wins legal battle over surplus amount

Melbourne, June 16 (ANI): A judge has allowed a British bank worker, who was given almost double her salary by mistake for three years, to keep the excess amount.

Natasha Keenan, 36, has also been allowed to retain the 40,000-dollar overpayment she has already received.

The woman, who has served Barclays as a part-time complaints adviser, revealed that she had not realised that she was wrongly being paid 35,000 dollars a year instead of the 19,500 dollars she was due.

After realising the administrative error, the bank asked the woman to hand back about 40,000 dollars.

Keenan took Barclays to an employment tribunal, which has finally ordered that the mother of two will continue to receive double salary for working 19 hours a week.

The judge presiding over the case ruled that she did not need to pay back a penny after finding the overpayment was the bank's fault.

In April, Keenan told the tribunal that she had spent the extra money and had used her pay slips to apply for a mortgage on the three-bedroom house she shares with her husband and children.

Barclays even provided a reference confirming her salary when she applied for the loan.

Keenan even got regular pay rises from the bank, including a 6000-dollar bonus, without spotting the error.

"If I had realised they'd made a mistake which could be spotted at any time, I wouldn't have put my family's future at risk and used it to apply for a mortgage," News.com.au quoted her as telling the tribunal. (ANI)