Fat-fingered worker “lost” council £9 million due to typing in wrong bank account number

A FAT-fingered council worker “lost” £9million by typing in the wrong bank account number.

The huge sum went missing for two days, a report reveals.

Panicked chiefs at Hertfordshire county council, which manages an annual £800million budget, lost out on £300 interest as a result of the blunder.

An audit committee report said the cash was to be transferred back to the council on August 7 after a short-term investment in a money market fund.

But a staff member tasked with typing in council bank details got two digits wrong. As a result it was returned to the fund and only arrived back on August 9.

Councillors heard a second worker should have signed off the details.

Due to the “serious nature of the failure”, an internal review was conducted.

Audit committee chairman Frances Button said any error was “regrettable”.

One taxpayer, a bricklayer from Hitchin, said: “I reckon the person had fat fingers and pressed the wrong keys — how else could you explain such a big mistake?”