Hundreds of people cashed in after an ATM machine began paying out double - and a bank said they can keep the unexpected windfall. Some customers walked away thousands of pounds better off after news of the cash bonanza rapidly spread.

Long queues quickly formed as residents in the affluent village of Milford-on-Sea, near Lymington, Hampshire, rushed to take money out.

After around 200 residents withdrew money over a two-hour period, police arrived at the ATM to close it off. Police even took to Twitter to inform people the cash glitch was over.

Theytweeted: 'If you get a call that the ATM at HSBC in Milford-on-Sea is dishing out too much money - we are there already - Sorry folks!

'If you have knowingly received too much money from an ATM, the banks will chase you as this may be classed as fraud.'

But HSBC said they would not be asking any customers to return the money as the mistake was theirs. A spokesman for the bank said it was not the customers' fault.

He said: 'The machine was mis-dispensing and we won't be requesting the funds back. It is certainly not the liability of the customers.'

Meanwhile, one villager, who asked not to be named, said: 'Some people used five or six bank cards and got ￡300 free with each card.

【新聞快訊】 近日，英國一臺ATM機(jī)發(fā)生故障，在顧客取款時會吐出雙倍數(shù)額的現(xiàn)金，此消息不脛而走之后，很多人趕來提款。銀行方面稱他們可以不用歸還多余的錢。

事件發(fā)生在英國漢普郡利明頓附近的富裕小鎮(zhèn)Milford-on-Sea，匯豐銀行在當(dāng)?shù)氐囊慌_ATM機(jī)發(fā)生故障，吐出雙倍現(xiàn)金，聞訊趕來的人在ATM機(jī)前排起了長隊，有的人甚至取走了數(shù)千英鎊，在故障時間里共有200名顧客取走現(xiàn)金。故障時間持續(xù)了兩個多小時，隨后警方趕到現(xiàn)場，關(guān)閉了這臺ATM機(jī)。

同時警方表示如果顧客在取現(xiàn)時已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)ATM機(jī)發(fā)生故障并且繼續(xù)取錢的話，那么銀行方面可能會以欺詐罪追究顧客責(zé)任。但匯豐銀行表示，他們不會追討多支付的錢，因為出錯的是銀行，顧客不必為此負(fù)責(zé)。一位不愿透露姓名的顧客告訴記者：“有些人用五六張銀行卡取錢。”