How a great-grandfather lost $71,000 in one click

When 88-year-old Gordon Layton hit send, he had no idea it would be the start of a long battle that could see him lose his home.

The great-grandfather from Bundaberg, in Queensland, was trying to electronically pay the company which moved an old house onto his block of land.

Instead, he paid someone else.

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"It's a sickening feeling when you realise $71,400 of your father's money is gone," Gordon's daughter, Jacqui Morrison-White, told A Current Affair.

"He'd saved a bank account in the wrong name and paid that person instead."

"It made me angry," Mr Layton said.

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"But I try not to get uptight. It's bad for my blood pressure."

Mr Layton transferred the $71,400 from his ING account into an incorrect ANZ account on June 14.

"Within three hours of that transfer we knew he'd made a mistake," Ms Morrison-White said.

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"However, I had faith that given that we'd come across the problem so quickly, and we've notified both the banks so promptly, that we would be fine."

But it wasn't fine.

Mr Layton's money cleared quickly and was taken out of the ANZ bank account.

"Well obviously I wasn't pleased," Mr Layton said.

"In fact, I was really p----d off that this guy had taken the opportunity to say 'well I'm not giving it back, bugger you'."

Mr Layton asked both banks to stop the payment but it was too late.

The man who received the money has now been charged for allegedly stealing the cash.

"Most of the time you think you've got two or three business days before the funds clear," Ms Morrison-White said.

"In this case it cleared so fast the banks say they couldn't stop it."

Ms Morrison-White said she demanded an investigation and eventually received an email from ING telling her they recalled the cash on June 15, a day after the payment.

"For some reason they didn't act for 24 hours," Ms Morrison-White said.

"And that seems to be a contributing factor."

In a statement, an ING spokesperson said: "Unfortunately Mr Layton paid the money to the wrong person who has an account at ANZ. When we were alerted to Mr Layton's mistake we sent a recall request to ANZ but they were unable to return the funds to Mr Layton's ING account".

An ANZ spokesperson said: "Depending on how a payment is made, it can clear within a very short period of time or take up to 48 hours before it's available in the recipient's account".

"It's become evident that the ANZ did try to get the money back," Ms Morrison-White said.ordon

"The funds had already been moved out that day and they had to ask the unintended recipient's permission to get the money back. Of course, he said no."

Ms Morrison-White said it has left her fuming.

"Two great big banks earn a tonne of money every year for their stakeholders. Little old pensioner makes a mistake and they've thrown their arms in the air and said 'we can't help you'. I think that's wrong," she said.

Worse still for Mr Layton, David Wright House Removers – the company which sold him the house, is now threatening legal action to get the money they're owed.

"And you can't blame them for that," Mr Layton said.

"They've engaged solicitors and so it's becoming another contender in a legal fight."

The stress on Mr Layton and his family has been enormous.

"Dad had a stroke on his 88th birthday," Ms Morrison-White said.

"If we don't get the money back my father has to sell his house to be able to pay the debt. How is that fair?" "I don't want the money to come to me," Mr Layton said.

"I want the money to come to the people that transferred the house, transferred that to here, and put it on high blocks for me because that's where it belongs."