Santander: Bank Hands Out £130m in Christmas Blunder

BBC: Tens of thousands of people awoke on Christmas morning to a surprise from an unexpected benefactor - Santander.

The bank mistakenly deposited £130m into 75,000 accounts on 25 December.

Santander's staff are now rushing to claw back the money, although the job is being made more difficult because much of it was deposited in accounts at rival banks, according to The Times.

The error occurred when payments from 2,000 business accounts were made twice.

"We're sorry that due to a technical issue, some payments from our corporate clients were incorrectly duplicated on the recipients' accounts," the bank said in a statement.

"None of our clients were at any point left out of pocket as a result and we will be working hard with many banks across the UK to recover the duplicated transactions over the coming days." » | Dan Ascher, Business reporter | Thursday, December 30, 2021

'I Took a Trip to the North Pole': Anthony Fauci Tells Children He Vaccinated Santa

THE GUARDIAN: Top US infectious diseases expert tells Sesame Street event Father Christmas is ‘good to go’ for present-delivery duty

Children around the world should not worry about the logistics of Christmas present delivery while the coronavirus pandemic rages, Dr Anthony Fauci said – because he vaccinated Santa himself.

“I took care of that for you,” the top US infectious diseases expert told CNN. “Because I was worried that you’d all be upset.

“So what I did a little while ago, I took a trip up there to the North Pole. I went there and I vaccinated Santa Claus myself. I measured his level of immunity, and he is good to go. He can come down the chimney. He can leave the presents, he can leave, and you have nothing to worry about. Santa Claus is good to go.” » | Martin Pengelly in New York | Saturday, December 19, 2020

US Postal Service Closes North Pole to Christmas Post
THE TELEGRAPH: The US Postal Service has been accused of Scrooge-like behaviour after it imposed strict rules on a 55-year-old Father Christmas letters service over fears that paedophiles might gain access to the young correspondents.

Since 1954, the Operation Santa programme, which is centred in the small Alaskan town of North Pole, has been forwarding about 150,000 letters a year addressed to “Santa Claus, North Pole”.

Replies written by volunteers around the US and bearing the North Pole postmark, come signed by one of Santa’s elves. However, concerns were raised last year when a worker at a sorting centre in Maryland recognised an Operation Santa volunteer in the state as a registered sex offender.

The individual was sacked before he could answer a child’s letter, but the episode prompted the Postal Service to tighten up the rules, which already required “elves” to show identification.

The service now prohibits volunteers from having access to children’s full names and addresses. They will be replaced by codes that match computerised addresses known only to the post office. >>> Tom Leonard in New York | Thursday, November 19, 2009

TIMES ONLINE: US cancels Santa Claus letter service over paedophile fears >>> James Bone in New York | Friday, November 20, 2009

Even Father Christmas Must Bow to Political Correctness in Sydney
Image courtesy of Google Images
SYDNEY (AFP) - Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.

Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported. Santas warned 'ho ho ho' offensive to women (more)

Mark Alexander