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AHMEDABAD: It would be anyone’s dream to withdraw as much cash as they want to from an ATM, without it being debited from their bank account. A Surat man finally crashed his dream run, which was good for Rs 1.54 lakh, when his bank caught on about the trick.

Haresh Patel, a resident of Utran in Surat, was apprehended by Chandkheda police after a manager of the Union Bank of India (UBI) filed a complaint against him, for cheating and breach of trust.

According to Chandkheda police, Anup Singh , the manager of the Chandkheda branch of UBI, filed a complaint on Tuesday stating that their ATM cash tally was not matching, or the cash deposited in the machine did not tally with the cash dispensed at the end of the cycle.

“The officials checked the records and decided to scrutinize one customer, identified from bank records as Haresh Patel , a resident of Surat with an account at the Haripura branch of UBI. The reason was, that Patel, from July to November 2018, had complained ATMs not dispensing cash a good 11 times. The sums withdrawn were between Rs 9,800 and Rs 15,000, and were deliberately kept small to avoid trouble,” said an investigator.

Patel had told the bank his money was not dispensed when he made transactions and his claims were settled. His claim of the ATM glitch, however, could not be corroborated when engineers checked the machine multiple times.

“Bank officials then checked CCTV footage and had a eureka moment. They found that Patel would put his finger into the cash dispenser tray before the money came out, blocking it. The machine would record the transaction as failed. However, as the money was already in the tray, Patel would stick his finger in and get the notes out,” said V R Desai, a sub-inspector at Chandkheda police station. Desai added that Patel would thus get the money from the ATM and when he presented his claim to the bank.

Desai added that Patel has been apprehended and is being questioned. “The trick to block the dispensing tray was used by a few gangs in the past. We are questioning him to ascertain from where he learnt the trick and whether he used it elsewhere,” he said.

