DELIGHTED passers-by flocked to a cash machine after it started issuing £20 notes instead of £10 notes.
The mistake happened at the Alliance & Leicester, in Pallion, Sunderland, as customers withdrew cash from its dispensing machine.
Chaos ensued when some took out the maximum allowed then went to the back of the queue to start again.
After about three hours, the police were called, and the machine was shut down.
A spokeswoman for Alliance & Leicester said computer records would enable the bank to trace who had been overpaid and by how much.
She said: "However, we think we can rely on people's basic honesty and trust them to come back with the money."
The spokeswoman attributed the problem to cassettes containing notes being loaded incorrectly, but refused to say how much had been overpaid
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