While your best friend probably winces every time they have to buy you a beer, one Aussie legend has spent upwards of $1.5 million on private jets, lavish restaurants and expensive gifts for his mates.

This came about through an ATM glitch, which allowed Dan Saunders, an Aussie bloke (at the time) working in a pub to continuously withdraw money despite the machine saying “transaction cancelled.”

And although, “It baffled him when the money kept coming out, but not appearing on his statements, (News.com)” that wasn’t quite enough to stop him…

“A lot of it is a blur I guess.” Mr Saunders told Today Tonight with a big grin.

“I’m transferring money from my credit card to my savings account and it’s just spitting the card back out and saying ‘transaction cancelled’,” he continued.

“But (I) go in and check the balance and the money’s there.”

“I was just interested in having a good time, drinking some nice wine and meeting some nice people and just enjoying things really,” he tells the current affairs program.

The only problem? Obtaining money by deception is a criminal offence.

Dan knew that, and was—again—baffled when “someone (from the bank or police) didn’t come,” revealing in his television debut that he, “Thought it was going to end after one week, not four and a half months.”

As it turns out, no-one came, and in the first few weeks alone Dan spent $20,000—a figure that over the course of four months spiralled into a hair raising $1.6 million.

Until he turned himself in.

While Dan admits he wouldn’t have made those decisions if it weren’t for finding “some crazy ATM loophole,” he appears to have zero regrets, as the glitch gave him a taste of a lifestyle he never would have experienced otherwise.

As News.com reports, “His short-lived life as a high roller began after he finished working a shift at his local pub in Wangaratta in rural Victoria in 2011.”

“Realising he can now afford anything he wanted, he headed straight for designer stores.”

He then spent $90,000 on a private jet to take him and a some mates to a remote Asian island for a weekend getaway.

“It’s a pretty addictive thing to make money appear from nowhere and be able to spend it.”

But eventually Dan began to worry about the law catching up with him: “I think the money and the general good time made it bearable but I always knew something, someone would come or something would happen,” he told Today Tonight.

“At the end of it I had to say to myself, ‘Am I an international criminal who’s just going to transfer money away and never be seen again?’”

“That’s when I stopped doing it because I asked myself that question … and the answer was ‘no’,” he explained.

As a result of coming clean, he was charged with obtaining money by deception, and sentenced to a year in jail, in 2015.

Now out of jail, he’s back working in hospitality—on $22 an hour—and although he misses his “money tree” every day, he hasn’t gone back to an ATM to try again…

RELATED: Step Inside Lufthansa’s VIP A350 Private Jet Complete With Spa 

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The hat is a much-maligned piece of clothing these days. It seems like someone is always complaining or making snarky remarks about the gentleman's chapeau, but it's only because they fear what they do not understand how to wear a hat. Not only is a hat a suave way to finish off an outfit, it's a...

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Whether you think it’s “insane” or “genius,” one thing is certain about Lift Aircraft’s aspiring “air taxi” business: it isn’t going to be boring.A startup from Texas, Lift Aircraft was founded in 2017 when engineer and entrepreneur Matt Chasen convinced various private investor groups of venture capital and private equity investors to back his vision of creating—essentially—jetpacks with doors.Since then all has been quiet on the ‘drones you can hop in’ front. Until today, when the media embargo was lifted and they unveiled ‘Hexa’, a flirty little 18-rotor craft.

We’re thrilled to publicly announce @LIFTAircraft today and unveil our #eVTOL aircraft, #Hexa. We believe in a future where everyone can fly – and that future starts today. Join our waitlist to fly in your city: https://t.co/4Gb5jvhGTO #UrbanAirMobility https://t.co/2w5yofWpDt

— LIFT Aircraft Inc. (@LIFTAircraft) December 12, 2018

As reported by TechCrunch; “It just flew for the first time last month, and could be taking passengers aloft as early as next year.”But before you inner city commuters get your hopes up: this one’s designed for “short recreational flights.”Damn.So how long do we have to wait before we can call an airborne Uber and give gridlock the bird?About a decade, reveals Matt Chasen, in a press release: “Multi-seat eVTOL air taxis, especially those that are designed to transition to wing-borne flight, are probably 10 years away and will require new regulations and significant advances in battery technology to be practical and safe.”In light of this, Lift Aircraft’s plan appears to be; complete their R & D while competition is low, wait for regulation to catch up with technology (a la Uber and Lyft), then strike with the perfect product as soon as it does.

“We didn’t want to wait for major technology or regulatory breakthroughs to start flying… We’ll be flying years before anyone else.”

As reported by Motherboard, “Chasen’s (end) goal is to use an app, Uber style, to allow users to hop in and out of the aircraft at predetermined locations at a cost of around $20 a flight.”This, of course, seems insane. But as transportation journalist John Surico reminded Motherboard, revolutionary technologies invariably seem crazy at first: “When cars first came out (they) were seen as threats, they were seen as toxic, they were seen as dangerous, and then cars took over America.”Oh and there’s already a waitlist. So it seems people are keen regardless of whether the government approves.And in terms of viability, while TechCrunch expressed reservations of its own, it had to admit: “There’s something to be said for proving your design in a comparatively easily accessed market and moving up, rather than trying to invent an air taxi business from scratch.”For now though, for anyone interested in giving the concept a whirl: Lift Aircraft’s ultralight classification means you don’t even need a pilot’s license to use it (recreationally).This means that taking one of these bad girls for a spin will be possible, as soon as Lift Aircraft find a city willing to provide permits for its ‘drone riding experience’ (in addition to safety considerations, the craft is, Chasen admits, “Not very loud, but… not whisper-quiet, either”). The company hope to get this all sorted out by next year.As for how it works: “The Hexa is flown with a single joystick and an iPad; direct movements and attitude control are done with the former, while destination-based movement, take-off and landing take place on the latter,” (TechCrunch).This is made significantly easier, Lift Aircraft explain, as the whole area is 3D mapped prior to flight. And (just to put your mind at ease), many of the system’s 18 electric motors are—in a good way!—redundant (i.e. the drone will still work without them).While this is supposed to be a safety feature, your vertiginous author still reckons it sounds ominous. But if you possess the cojones to cavort across the sky in one of these contraptions: more power to you.Just don’t crash until they’ve got permission to get the whole “Uber of the skies” gig going (scared of heights as we are, we’d take that over dodging grown men riding scooters and lycra wearing cyclists any day).RELATED: This Submersible Drone Is What Bond Villain Dreams Are Made Of 

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The man who had it all has recently lost back-to-back fights, and now his coach wants him to give up. That's one reading of the situation.

Another is that John Kavanagh, Connor's coach, just wants what's best for his mate of over a decade. But, in sport, as in life: it's more complicated than tha...

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Coat. Looks good. Trousers. Perfect. Shoes. On point. Suit…still needs a lot of work, it would appear.Bradley Cooper is at it again and this time he almost got away with it. Rocking up to the ‘A Star is Born’ premiere in Japan, the American actor looked the part in a nicely fitted herringbone coat paired to blue window pane trousers with cuffed hems and polished brown dress shoes. Winning look? Almost, friends. Almost.Once Cooper took the coat off it was revealed that he was still making one of the biggest mistakes in menswear with all of his suit buttons done up – a big no-no.RELATED: The Secret To Making A Good Suit GreatSuit fitment was fine but it seems Cooper just has a penchant for not giving a toss about what buttoning up the second does to a man’s physique. It simply wraps you in an awkward manner. In our previous spot of Cooper doing this, it was explained that the single button rule came from King Edward VII during the early 1900s.The theory behind the perennial style move was a rather simple one: Edward was too fat so he unbuttoned the last button as a tribute to the horse riding jacket that the suit blazer replaced. The look stuck and in modern times the second button acts as nothing more than an aesthetic addition to the classic blazer. Do it up and you could be messing with more than just tradition these days. The same also goes for waistcoats.Now with that in mind we hope that you guys won’t make the same mistake. It’s a small detail with huge effects so always stay on top of it.We’ve also included a short gallery to show you how to button your suit.

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A Russian Orthodox priest has been caught posing in luxury fashion labels, and is to face severe "penance," as directed by his superiors.

This was sparked by a series of Instagram posts, in which the priest, Vyacheslav Baskakov, flaunted extravagant items from Gucci and Louis Vuitton, senior chur...

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Ah, David Beckham. Even as the year draws to an end the British football star and style icon isn’t taking a back seat.At last night’s Fashion Awards in London, Beckham rolled up with his wife and son in style thanks to a cocktail dress code. For those who are unaware, a cocktail party usually demands a more formal affair in the wardrobe department – suit, tie, solid colours that are variations of black or darker tones.David Beckham? He doesn’t follow rules. The world’s most stylish family man turned up in a black double breasted three piece suit…sans a tie. Groundbreaking? Not quite. But when it comes to following a cocktail dress code it is certainly one way to stand out. But rather than judging the man’s ability to play by the rules, we’re just going to admit that he looks damn good regardless.A simple tailored black suit is the secret here which is further paired to a crisp white shirt with two buttons undone – any more and you’re moving into gigolo territory. Beckham also kept to the monochrome theme with a puff style pocket square (which you can learn to do right here). Shoes? Textbook black, polished of course.It’s a simple yet elegant look which pushes the boundaries of the cocktail dress code but if you can do it this well then you can get away with it.Now go forth and hit the gallery for more cool black suit looks from Beckham and friends.RELATED: 50 Ways To Wear A Black Suit For Work Or Play

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Although society is becoming more open minded, people still make various assumptions about sex workers. Samantha X, one of Australia’s most high-profile escorts, is on a mission to change that.She began her career as a journalist at InStyle, Prevention and New Idea magazines, but switched professions, revealing during a Sunday Night interview in 2014 that she had been working as a high end escort, charging $800 an hour for her services or $5,000 for an entire night.Since then she has quit escorting for love, gone through a breakup, and starting escorting again.Using her tenacity (and knowledge of the media) to boost her profile, she has generated intrigue and controversy, written two well publicised books (Hooked – Secrets of a High-Class Escort and Back on Top – Confessions Of A High Class Escort) and built her own escort agency to boot.While some have attacked her for job choice, to others she is an inspiration—with both men and women worldwide wanting to know her secrets in and out of the bedroom.But when it comes to her personal life, her approach is actually quite vanilla.When we asked if she would ever consider paying for sex herself, she responded, “No I have never paid for sex! I would be way too shy!”

“I rarely have sex in my ‘real life,'” she continued, “I rarely have one night stands and would rather wait till I meet someone special.”

“As an escort; I’m supposed to be the kinky one; the one who does nothing all day but live breathe and do sex. But even I couldn’t have sex every day with my husband in my real life,” Samantha once revealed in a blog post.Also: when it comes to clients, she told us, her job is often a lot more sexually ‘tame’ than you might expect: “I have learnt that men love to talk and need affection (not just sex) more than we could ever know; they get nervous around women!”

“They (men) also need to hear compliments and would rather please you in bed, before themselves. I love men, more so doing this job.”

As to stereotypes about sex work, Samantha believes they are slowly but surely breaking down: “I think the sex industry is becoming more acceptable and that is because of social media (more sex workers have voices and faces and normal lives for you all to see), and more people are talking about it.”

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Criticise the adult industry all you want, but this is the face of a single mother who has just paid off their credit card, put a chunk of cash in their tax account and has a little left over for a nice coffee table. There is NO WAY I would have achieved that on my old wage as a journalist. So for those who think what I do is disempowering, morally questionable, something to be ashamed of blah blah, let me tell you this: I am a financially independent woman. I spend time with lovely gentlemen (as you can tell from my Insta posts on them..). I rarely date in the real world and I work my own hours- a handful of times a fortnight to be honest – and I don’t sponge off some bloke. No one gives me handouts. This job isn’t for everyone, but I was born to do it and it makes me happy. I love men, I love intimacy (physical and emotional), and I love being financially independent. #business #ownit #womenempowerment

A post shared by Samantha X® (@samanthaxreal) on Oct 22, 2018 at 3:12am PDT

“With the rise of sugar daddy websites, and younger people getting into those—then escorting is really not much different.”

“For me personally,” she added, “I haven’t experienced much stigma, but I am very open. People love to out and shame those who try to keep it a secret.”RELATED: High Class Escort ‘Samantha X’ Reveals What Men Really Want From Sex 

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There’s no quick fix to depression. Which makes even the most well-intentioned listicles useless.

But that’s not to say it’s a problem that can’t be tackled.

As Channel 10’s The Living Room host, home-design expert, and R U Ok? ambassador Barry du Bois attests—simple as it sounds—just asking your mates how they’re going, offering your support, and sharing your own insecurities can help them feel less alone.

Although he acted confident on the outside, Barry tells us that for years he was “really dark.” Until one day, a friend asked if he was ok.

“It was that conversation,” he tells us, “That got me talking about it and admitting that I didn’t feel as happy about life as I should have.”

When he retired in 2006, Barry’s life appeared a source of envy: “My business career was amazing, I was making loads of money, I had loads of friends… I was confident, robust; the sort of guy a lot of people wanted to be.”

“But inside I was scared stiff—I’m 6’2″ and a pretty fit guy, but when I was out in public I felt really small.”

Behind his strong persona, Barry tells us, “I convinced myself that everybody would be better off if I wasn’t around, because I was having terrible thoughts about life.”

“I told my wife I didn’t love her when I loved her dearly. I was trying to make people reject me.”

But eventually, he was asked, ‘Are you ok?’ by a friend, who Barry tells us, “Followed up and engaged in the conversation—after giving me a sense of security by asking that question—and that’s when I started to come out of the depression.”

Not that this was an overnight change. As Baz reminds us: just as it can take years to drift into depression, it can take “months and years” to come out of it, too.

“It’s not like I healed overnight, what happened was I just started to talk more—and after I had that very first conversation every discussion helped—so I was keen to have further chats and also to ask how my friends were going as well.”

“They were quite happy to admit life was tough sometimes; and that it made it easier for me to admit it as well.”

It was 18 months to 2 years Barry before got back to a healthy mental state. And although he can’t explain exactly why he became depressed in the first place, he tells us how, “I’d lost my mum to cancer, my wife had cancer and I’d had a bad fall a few years before (becoming depressed).”

Since then, Barry has gone through some tough times with cancer himself, and believes that what he learned in overcoming his depression (now almost a decade ago) has “helped him greatly” to deal with his latest diagnosis.

“I can’t say strongly enough how important that self belief and understanding of myself helped me to maintain a real sense of positivity through my treatment—and for life in general,” he says.

“There’s no return for investment in negativity; but there are great dividends in an investment in happiness or positivity.”

As an example, he says, “If you say, ‘this is a sh*t life,’ there isn’t going to be a return in that. But if I smile at you or say thank you, I’ll probably get a little smile or a ‘thank you’ back—which is an investment.”

According to him, “This is the beautiful thing about the R U Ok? movement—we don’t leave the onus on the person who’s struggling: it’s up to everybody to check in with their friends and then really listen to their answers.”

“Let them know if you sense they’re saying there’s something wrong, and let them know that if they can’t handle it—you’re there to help them.”

“Most importantly, Barry adds, “Follow up on that conversation, because if more of us did that; the people that are depressed would be more inclined to ask for help.”

 

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For a lot of us every day is a great day but not everyone feels that way in fact 50% of the people surveyed by @ruokday said that they hoped someone would ask if they are OK great to get The together with @stevebastoni @commandosteve @itsbliitz & all the team this morning to kick off The Conversation Convoy

A post shared by Barry Du Bois. (@baz_dubois) on Jul 29, 2018 at 9:47pm PDT

By way of explanation, Barry reveals that, “When I was depressed there was no chance I was going to ask for help; that would just have made me feel even weaker.”

“To add another layer of responsibility to (a depressed person) is just going to make life harder.”

This is why, Barry reiterates, “My mate taking responsibility to ask that question is what got me through that tough time.”

Also, he says, be wary of giving advice: “When I was depressed, everybody gave me all this advice on books, tablets, health and fitness, and all those things can no doubt be great—but when you mentally feel weak or insignificant, someone telling you what do just amplifies how weak you feel.”

“When I was depressed I didn’t think there was anything wrong with me, I thought there was something wrong with everybody else and I just didn’t fit in—blaming everybody from the government to my wife for my problems.”

So what does this mean for concerned friends? Keep it simple, while showing you care.

• Don’t always try and give a depressed (or potentially depressed) friend advice
• Ask them a question
• Listen to them
• Follow up

Also, he points out, helping a mate overcome an irrational train of thought is rarely achieved by pointing out the inconsistencies in what they are saying.

Instead, Barry says, listen, empathise, and choose one of their problems to help with: “They’re depressed, so what you’ve got to do is help them get some of that stuff out.

“What you need to do is listen and say, ‘I can hear you’ve got a problem: is this something you can handle, or do you need me to help you?'”

“If you try to rationalise to them when they’re venting, all you’re doing is putting up barriers,” Barry says. But if you empathise and offer to help, “That will simmer down an irrational thought.”

And although you may be tempted to recommend a self help book or podcast, Barry warns that this can give the wrong impression.

“If you say to a depressed person, ‘You’re depressed; you wanna read this book;’ you’re not helping them at all—you’re just saying, ‘I recognise there’s something wrong with you and I can’t help you—but maybe you can help yourself if you read this book.'”

Instead, follow the strategies outlined above, ask questions, invest time in them, and show that you really care—via your actions.

RELATED: Australian Entrepreneurs Share Strategies For Managing Stress & Mental Health

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