Nah, it's littered with the usual apocryphal story inconsistencies
For a start, there's a cash withdrawal limit on UK bank accounts (usually around 500 quid per day, max). This is in place a) to stop wealthy individuals emptying cash machines on a whim; b) to prevent a large-scale run on the bank and c) to stop exactly this sort of fuckup from gifting any one person a large tax-free windfall. Banks could --if they so wished-- easily pursue and recover the funds, considering each transaction is meticulously logged from end to end. The reason why they usually don't bother to do so is the reputational damage of chasing their own mistake would be far higher than the cost of writing off the lost cash.

Secondly, as evidenced by other stories this week, any cash machine dispensing double would quickly develop a reputation and hence, a queue. That would seriously limit how much you could withdraw, even if no withdrawal limit existed on the account itself.

So really, it assumes that the person mentioned was the only chap using this benevolent ATM that day and he also had an account with no withdrawal limit. Both extremely unlikely, I think.
( chart cat has an itch, Thu 23 Jul 2009, 8:31, Reply)