US News

BANK: TAKE THE $$

Benjamin Lovell says he kept trying to explain to Commerce Bank officials that he really didn’t have $5.8 million in his account.

But they kept insisting he could take the money and run – and so he did, scooping up $1 million the first day and another $1.1 million over the next four weeks.

Of the $2.1 million total, the married dad invested $1.5 million – badly – gave $36,000 to pals and spent $8,000 on gems for a girlfriend, according to the Brooklyn DA.

The bank, which bills itself as “America’s most convenient,” didn’t turn out to be America’s most forgiving. When officials learned of the multimillion-dollar blunder, they called the cops.

Lovell, who earns $600 a week as a salesman for KeySpan, was charged with first-degree grand larceny, and faces up to 25 years in the slammer if convicted.

He was ordered held in lieu of $3 million bond or $1 million cash bail at his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court last night.

Lovell, 48, of Brownsville, had an $800 account at the bank’s Montague Street branch in Brooklyn Heights.

The monumental mix-up happened because another Benjamin Lovell works for a firm called Woodlawn Trustee, which has a $5.8 million account at the same branch.

Last December, Woodlawn – which manages trusts – asked that its Lovell be added to the account.

The bank confused the Social Security numbers of the men, giving the wrong Lovell the right to withdraw money from the $5.8 million account, authorities said.

On Dec. 14, the wrong Lovell walked into the bank to make a $400 deposit. A teller mentioned that he had a second account with $5.8 million in it.

To his credit, a confused Lovell spoke to the manager and other bank officials – and he said all of them insisted there was no problem whatsoever with him withdrawing money, he said.

So, prosecutor Kevin Richardson said, he withdrew $10,000 and later in the day took out another $990,000.

From Dec. 16 to Jan. 10, he allegedly withdrew a total of $1.1 million.

Woodlawn Trustee officials, meanwhile, were getting bank statements and saw the money was missing.

Cops busted Lovell Monday and he was charged with grand larceny for knowingly taking money that wasn’t his.

Lovell invested much of it in loser stocks and only $500,000 was recovered.

Lovell was last in the news in 1998, when Ol’ Dirty Bastard, the late rapper, helped lift a car off his daughter, Maati, after an auto accident.

A Commerce spokesman did not return a call or an e-mail seeking comment.

alex.ginsberg@nypost.com