Cleaner keeps $80k of mystery haul found in toilet

A cleaner is $80,000 better off after handing over a stash of dirty notes he discovered hidden in a toilet in a Melbourne office block.

Chamindu Amarsinghe was going about his regular duties when he discovered around $100,000 stuffed into a sanitary bin on the ground floor of the offices at Docklands in August 2011.

On Tuesday, a magistrate awarded him $81,597 for his honesty.

The other $19,500 will go to the state.

"There was too much to count - I thought someone was playing a prank on me," Mr Amarsinghe said.

"But when I touched the notes - all yellow and green - I realised it was real money."

The surprised worker immediately declared his mammoth find.

Police and a plumber pulled more than $100,000 from the Bourke Street bathroom - $12000 plucked from the pipes.

The mystery haul was never claimed by anyone.

Charges were laid following a subsequent police investigation, but later dropped, according to reports.

This week, Mr Amarsinghe, who is now studying IT in New Zealand, received a phone call to say the money was his.

"I was speechless," he told the Herald Sun.

The student plans to donate some of his windfall to helping disabled people and some to a Buddhist temple in Berwick.



