After splurging $4.6 million on handbags and designer goods over 11 months thanks to a Westpac banking error, Christine Jia Xin Lee had a simple explanation.

The 21-year-old student received a phone call on April 8 last year from Westpac's senior manager of group investigations, Matt Tregoning, who had frozen her account upon realising she had accidentally been given an unlimited overdraft.

The call, contained in an affidavit obtained by Fairfax Media, offers the first glimpse of Ms Lee's version of the extraordinary events. Asked why she had overdrawn her account by $4.6 million, she said she thought her wealthy parents in Malaysia were putting the money in her account.

"I bought clothes, shoes, lots of handbags ... They are in my unit at Rhodes," she said, adding that she had only $4000 cash left.

"My mother is coming over to visit me in June and will give the bank a cheque," she said. "I have [told my parents about it] and they are not very happy with me."

More than a year later, the chemical engineering student, who was in Australia on a student visa, was arrested at Sydney Airport as she tried to board a flight to Malaysia using an emergency-issue passport.

Ms Lee was charged on May 5 with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime.

But the case has been in court since April 2015, when Westpac went to the Supreme Court and Federal Circuit Court to declare Ms Lee bankrupt.

Court documents obtained by Fairfax Media have revealed more details about the case.

Ms Lee opened the account one month shy of her 18th birthday in 2012 and received regular deposits from her parents while she studied at the University of Sydney.

Bank statements tendered in court show her first overdraft was on July 22, 2014, when a monthly rent payment of $3454 put the account into debit.

She quickly topped it back up but, when two more rent payments went through, she stopped putting the account back into credit and started transferring small, then large, sums to a PayPal account. The regular deposits from her parents soon stopped.

Over seven months, about $4.5million was transferred to her PayPal account. About half of that was forwarded to two Commonwealth Bank accounts and used to shop at Sydney boutiques, sometimes spending over $300,000 in a day. The items she bought – mostly handbags, clothes, sunglasses, jewellery, shoes and mobile phones – were revealed by Fairfax Media last week.

Her transactions on one day, April 7, eventually triggered an alert to Westpac's Product Risk unit.

Ms Lee had transferred $1.15 million to her PayPal account in 14 transactions over one day. Westpac froze the account and contacted Ms Lee. When asked why she thought she had access to that much money, she said: "My parents give me lots of money."

Westpac obtained court orders last year to seize all her assets, declare her bankrupt and take her passport, which she said she couldn't find.

She was put on the AFP's Airport Watch List following a $5814.90 purchase at Cathay Pacific Sydney Airport on April 2, 2015.

After she stopped showing up at court or answering calls, police issued a warrant for her arrest on March 6, 2016. But a magistrate indicated that criminal charges may be difficult to prove, given the bank provided her with the credit.

Westpac have argued that Ms Lee had signed terms and conditions stating she wouldn't overdraw her account. They were able to get PayPal to return the $1.15 million transferred on April 7 but the rest remains outstanding.

Searches found apartment full of goods

When three solicitors entered Christine Jia Xin Lee's apartment at 1.52pm on May 20, 2015, armed with a court order to take anything she'd bought with her accidental Westpac overdraft, it was a confronting scene.

Shopping bags, shoe boxes, designer handbags, scarves, shoes and jewellery were scattered all over the floor and the furniture.

During two searches in April and May, Ms Lee was forced to hand over more than 100 handbags and mounds of clothes, sunglasses, shoes, key chains, scarves, a vacuum cleaner, cushions and jewellery.

Photos tendered in the Supreme Court show numerous diamond necklaces, earrings and rings, plus several photos of Ms Lee flaunting her goods.

By February, she had fled the Rider Boulevard apartment. By the time she was arrested in May, her boyfriend could only offer $1000 surety.