£950 on iPad cartoon game Zombie Takeover: Jake Sadler, 6, racks up bill buying 'gold'

£950 on iPad cartoon game Zombie Takeover: Jake Sadler, 6, racks up bill buying 'gold'

• Boy's parents thought they were victims of an elaborate fraud sting
• But their son had managed to input the password to their debit card in order to purchase 'pretend gold'
• Apple has agreed to refund the money
  

By Alison Smith Squire

PUBLISHED: 10:49 EST, 22 April 2012 | UPDATED: 08:42 EST, 23 April 2012

He looks as if butter wouldn't melt.

But this is the little boy who spent £1,000 of his parent's cash  - playing an online computer game.

Cheeky Jake Sadler, six, from Portsmouth, managed to fritter the money buying 'pretend gold' to play the Zombie Takeover game - free to download - on his mother's iPad.

Yet his bewildered parents only discovered Jake, from Portsmouth, had spent the money after their bank's fraud team rang over concerns with 'unusual activity' on their account.

Cheeky: Jake Sadler, six, managed to fritter the money buying 'pretend gold' to play the Zombie Takeover game on his mother's iPad

And it was then they spotted that over £950 had been spent within just thirty minutes.

Jake's mother Gemma, 31, a nursing support assistant, said: 'We had no idea the money was even going out of our account until the fraud squad at the bank rang us.

'And when we looked at our bank account and found such a large amount of money missing I felt absolutely sick.'

Fearing they were the victim of an elaborate sting, Mrs Sadler and husband Martin, 34, an electronics assembler, desperately tried to make sense of what was happening.

Fear: Jake's mother Gemma, 31, a nursing support assistant, said she felt 'absolutely sick' when she found such a large amount of money missing from her and her husband's joint bank account

Relief: Fortunately Mrs Sadler managed to contact Apple, which agreed to refund the cash

But it was then they saw Jake sat very quietly in the corner with Mrs Sadler's iPad.

And when they looked closer, they discovered Jake had managed to input the password to their debit card. He was buying the pretend 'gold' to play the game in which the player leads an army of zombie fighters to battle human invaders.

Mrs Sadler said: 'We had no idea Jake even knew our password or how he'd even got onto our card details. But then it dawned on us that the game he was playing is linked to our iTunes account and our card is on that.

'He must have overheard myself or my husband talking about it. He is a very clever little boy and we'd underestimated just how much he takes in.'

She added: 'It might have been funny but we were desperately worried as we can't afford to lose that sort of money.'

Fortunately Mrs Sadler managed to contact iTunes owner Apple, which is currently being sued over the issue in the U.S., who agreed to refund their cash.

She said: 'Needless to say we've changed our password and from now on will be doing all our banking when Jake is in bed!'

Zombie Takeover allows the user to lead an army of zombie fighters to join with vampires and werewolves to defend against human invaders.

Players can either win gold by advancing the levels or buy it to help in their fight.

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