laravel 5 method does not exist - why can't i access my function?

I am having trouble calling a method in my Account class.

Here is the method defined in my class:

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Account extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = ['customer_id','bookmaker_id', 'balance', 'profit'];

    public function addProfit($amountToAdd) {
        $this->profit = $this->profit + $amountToAdd;
    }

.......
......

Here is my method call in my controller

$account->addProfit(5);

I have established that I am returning a single account record with the dd($account) command, so it appears it's definitely a problem with the method.

However, I get this message when I try to run the code:

BadMethodCallException in Macroable.php line 81:
Method addProfit does not exist.

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