A teenager in Finland discovered a software loophole in a Maltese online casino and stole €250,000 from clients' accounts, a Finnish court has been told.

National media in Finland reported that the 18-year-old, from the southern Finnish municipality of Forssa, appeared in the Häme District Court on Monday on charges of aggravated fraud.

He allegedly registered as a customer with a fake date of birth.

YLE reported that the casino's system was set up to give clients the option of cancelling the return of their funds so that the refund was paid into an online wallet as well as the customer's bank account.

Over the course of about a month the teenager exploited the bug to transfer more than €252,000 of the casino's funds to his bank accounts. He had the casino send the refunds to his bank account 417 times between April and May 2017.

The young man's father and mother also face charges of money laundering in the case, with the father accused of aggravated money laundering.

An employee of the casino discovered the scam in July 2017. 

The prosecutor is calling for a 20-month prison sentence for the minor, a five-month suspended sentence for the father and a more lenient suspended sentence for the mother.

The Central Häme District Court is expected to rule on the case on September 3.

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