An Australian bank accidentally gave a teenager access to 4.6 million Australian dollars (£2.4 million) – and she allegedly spent most of it, apparently on handbags.

Christine Jiaxin Lee, now 21, was arrested at Sydney airport trying to flee to Malaysia after allegedly using funds made available to her due to a “glitch” by Westpac, one of Australia’s biggest banks.

She allegedly first received access to the funds when she was about to turn 18 in August 2012 and spent the money on handbags and luxury goods.

“That’s a lot of handbags,” said the magistrate.

The bank claims the funds were mistakenly made available via an unlimited overdraft account and that £1.7 million remains unrecovered.

The magistrate said the overdraft facility came with an expectation that the funds would be repaid, noting that the amount was “money we all dream about”.