An Australian bank clerk who kept quiet about cash he found in the street was told by a Sydney court on Tuesday he might have got to keep the Aus$262 000 (R1,3-million) if he had been honest and reported his find to police.
Sean Clifford (23) was instead found guilty of ”larceny by finding” and put on an 18-month good-behaviour bond.
A colleague tipped off police after finding a portion of the loot in a paper bag under Clifford’s desk at work.
Police said the ancient principle of finders-keepers didn’t apply in this case because Clifford hadn’t made any attempt to locate the owner of the wads of notes he found.
Magistrate Christopher Longley said the case should serve as a warning to people not to try to keep what’s not theirs.
”Persons who locate this amount of money in a bag should really have presented it to the appropriate authorities, because a person does not leave a quarter of a million dollars in the street,” he said.
Police received a welter of calls from people claiming ownership of the loot, but discounted them all as opportunistic. There is speculation that the owner might not have come forward because the money was the proceeds of a drug deal. — Sapa-DPA