A PLYMOUTH man who unexpectedly found £45,000 in his bank account went on a wild spending spree, a court heard.

Michael Robinson, 21, gave half the money to his girlfriend and splashed out on a new silver Vauxhall Astra car, a £1,000 watch, furniture and "stupid amounts of clothes", as well as paying bills.

But the money had been credited wrongly to his account by Slough Borough Council after a mix-up over account numbers.

By the time the error was discovered and the account frozen by court order, just £2,000 was left.

Victoria Hoyle, prosecuting, said Robinson had been in care, and was due to receive a leaving payment from the council on reaching 21.

But £45,561.45 which should have been credited to a company providing care had gone into Robinson's account by mistake.

Several failed attempts were made to contact Robinson, but eventually he phoned back to say he had been on holiday and was not a thief.

He thought he had somehow won the money and wanted to pay it back.

When he found the cash in his account, he told his girlfriend he must have won the Lottery or a Readers' Digest draw.

He admitted he "went a bit mad" and was more interested in spending the windfall than where it had come from.

Kelly Scrivener, for Robinson , said he was a man of good character from a very poor background who had a girlfriend and a very young baby to support with his wages.

Judge Francis Gilbert QC told Robinson, of Efford Lane, Efford, it was unfortunate for the council tax-payers of Slough that someone in the borough council had made an error, but he didn't accept the loss would have a drastic impact on its social care budget, as claimed by Miss Hoyle.

He added: "One day you went out and found a rather inflated amount of money in your bank account.

"You obviously thought Christmas had come early; it was a temptation you were quite unable to resist."

He sentenced Robinson, who had admitted theft, to nine months in jail suspended for two years, imposed £400 prosecution costs and ordered him to do 100 hours of unpaid community work.

He said he would leave it to other courts to retrieve the remaining £2,000 and the car, which Robinson had handed over to police.