If the details of this story from the Daily Mail are true, then this has to be a claimant for the title of "Stupidest woman in Britain". Not only did Ms Lee, a "jobless single mother" (why am I not surprised by this), spend money she knew was not hers, she blew it - apparently saving none of it for herself or her child. No wonder the baby looks so miserable.
Mother lands a £135,000 windfall in bank blunder...and blows it in weeks
With just £6.59 in the bank, Sarah-Jane Lee decided to limit herself to a £10 cash withdrawal.
But when she went to take out the money, she was astonished to find rather more funds were available - an extra £135,000 to be precise.
Over the next few weeks the 20-year-old lived like a lottery winner, blowing almost all of the money the bank had put in her account in error. Read more
I’d be grateful if you could explain what you mean by 'Ms Lee, a "jobless single mother" (why am I not surprised by this)' as I'm concerned that you're throw away comment seems to be displaying vast prejudice.
ReplyDeletemany thanks
Ben Bell
Hi Ben,
ReplyDeleteIt is not 'prejudice', but a recognition of an established pattern. The poor girl - and to some extent I do feel sorry for her - has already managed to mess her life up (and, to some extent, that of her child) by becoming a mother out of wedlock. It strongly suggests, for a start, she either doesn't know how to make contraceptives work, or didn't care to, despite there being no obvious means of economic provision for herself and her offspring to be.
It is of a piece with her attitude to her suddenly-acquired wealth. "The day after the money had gone into my account, I went in to the bank and drew out £500. They should have realised then that it was their money. I asked them what 'account adjustment' meant but they couldn't tell me." Apparently it was the bank's fault she blew all this wealth, since they didn't stop her!
The eye-opener for me on this sort of thing was Theodore Dalrymple's Life at the Bottom: The worldview that makes the underclass. Have a read of my post on this.
I am very glad you raised this question! You are the first person to challenge it.