The boss of a virtual bank has pilfered the coffers in order to help pay off his real-world debts.

Players of popular RPG EVE Online work hard within the game, completing tasks to earn ‘Interstellar Kredits’ which they duly deposit in a virtual Ebank. Imagine their surprise, horror and general disgruntlement, then, when the bank’s CEO – a Aussie gamer known only as ‘Michael’ – swiped around 200 billion from the reserves and exchanged it for around £3100 in cold, hard cash so that he could alleviate a few personal financial issues back in the real world. Very naughty.

Michael won’t face any judicial action outside of the game, and it’s not known whether he’ll be banned by the EVE community – even if it’s unlikely he’ll be getting his old job back. As for justifying his thieving ways Michael could only whimper to Reuters: It was a very on the spot decision. I saw that as an avenue that could be taken, and I decided to skim off the top, you could say, to overcome real life (difficulties)."

Pitiful, isn’t it? A touch hilarious too, we suppose. Rest assured, though, that such a thing could never happen in real life. Could it...?