How to load *.mat file and convert it to numpy array?

Question

As in the subject, ie. how to load given *.mat file and convert it to numpy array? Say, I've got a matlab matrix:

X =

     8     1     6
     3     5     7
     4     9     2

I saved it as data.mat, and now I want to load it in my python script, where next I want to convert it to numpy array, so it will become:

np.array([[8, 1, 6], [3, 5, 7], [4, 9, 2]])

I know already, that I can use the scipy.io.loadmat() function, but when I try to call it just like that:

mat = scipy.io.loadmat('data')

...I'm getting an error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:/Users/jsmith/PycharmProjects/MagicScript.py", line 4, in <module>
    mat = si.loadmat('data')
  File "C:\Users\jsmith\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\scipy\io\matlab\mio.py", line 131, in loadmat
    MR = mat_reader_factory(file_name, appendmat, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Users\jsmith\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\scipy\io\matlab\mio.py", line 55, in mat_reader_factory
    mjv, mnv = get_matfile_version(byte_stream)
  File "C:\Users\jsmith\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\scipy\io\matlab\miobase.py", line 237, in get_matfile_version
    % ret)
ValueError: Unknown mat file type, version 46, 51

Thank you in advance.