A British mother of two has lost some $40,000 after steadily transferring money into a wrong account for more than two years before realizing what she'd done, money that the recipient refuses to return!

 She realized in October 2012 that each time since June 2010 that she'd transferred her monthly paycheck of $1,500 from her account to a joint one she shares with her husband, it had gone into the wrong account because she'd been off by one digit when she'd set up the bill payment schedule.

She explained that they'd switched to paperless statements in 2010, and while she'd been checking to see that the money left her account every month, she didn't make sure it had gone into the joint account.

 She's only gotten about $1,500 of it back, because the recipient has refused to return the money. Aslo~ the bank can't reveal his or her identity due to data protection rules.

Good news for the woman~ Under British law, money that mistakenly goes into a person's account can be withdrawn without permission for up to six years. BUT~in this case, the recipient had already withdrawn the money from ATMs, so it can't be retrieved.