Indian teacher lands £6bn 'bonus'

A school teacher became a billionaire overnight after a bank deposited 490bn rupees (£6.3bn) into his account by mistake.

Parijat Saha, from West Bengal, discovered the error when he went to an ATM to check his balance, expecting it to be about £130.

The teacher, from Balurghat, who earns around £450 a month, said he phoned a friend at the State Bank of India straight away to point out the error. The bank declined to comment on how the money came to be in the account, but the funds were said to be "uncleared", which means the money could not have been withdrawn.

"Even though I got my money back, the account still holds the billions of dollars as an uncleared amount," said Mr Saha. "I don't know how long I'll have to keep that astronomical figure in my account."