Police allege a Sydney woman had $4.6 million wrongly put into her bank account.
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Ms Lee has been granted bail with strict conditions, including the confiscation of her emergency passport and she must report twice a day to a police station.
The court heard the woman has completed three years of a chemical engineering degree and has deferred her fourth year of study.
In this case, Ms Stapleton contended, Ms Lee did not break the law but still owed the bank the money she had spent.
But Magistrate Lisa Stapleton raised doubts about whether Lee’s alleged use of the money was a proceed of crime if the bank had “inadvertently” given her an overdraft facility that she then took advantage of.
According to her lawyer Fiona McCarron, Ms Lee spent around $1 million of this money on handbags, luxury goods and other transfers.
He said he had “no idea” she had ever been given access to the money and reportedly claimed to have never seen her make extravagant purchases.
The woman, who was allegedly attempting to fly to Malaysia when she was picked up by Australian federal police at Sydney airport on Wednesday night, appeared at Waverley local court on Thursday.
She said the police would have difficulties proving the spending was illegal, to which Ms Stapleton agreed.
Sydney City Local Area Command’s CBD fraud unit issued a warrant for Ms Lee’s arrest in March of this year, four years after their investigation began.
Christine Lee had $4.6m mistakenly given to her by a bank.
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Prosecutor Marc Turner opposed bail claiming Lee had recently applied for an emergency passport to return to Malaysia.
