Devastated mum’s £12million winning lottery ticket BINNED by shopkeeper
A MUM found out she had won £12million on the Lotto — but a shopkeeper had thrown her ticket in the bin.
Kath Main, 46, read in The Sun that the June 6 jackpot was unclaimed, and the winning numbers matched hers.
But her mum had taken the ticket to be checked at a Londis in Abercynon, South Wales, where they said it was not a winner.
National Lottery operator Allwyn is investigating.
Mum-of-two Kath, a rugby club treasurer, said: “I just feel sick all the time, it’s the not knowing and waiting.”
She told how she has had the same numbers for 20 years and her mum puts them on.
READ MORE ON LOTTERY WINNERS
She recalled: “I saw there was an unclaimed lottery ticket and checked the numbers and realised they were mine. I rang my mother and said, ‘You did put the lottery on?’ and she said ‘Yeah’.
“I said, ‘Well we’ve won the lottery,’ and she said, ‘I checked and there was no winners’. I said ‘No, it’s a winner, we’ve won’. She said ‘How much?’ and I said, ‘£12million’. She said ‘It can’t be, the ticket’s in the bin’.”
Cafe owner Fiona said the machine did not beep and the shop owner told her nothing had come up on the screen.
She added: “He told me, ‘There are no winners, do you want them back?’ And I said if there are no winners then put them in the bin.
“Kath told me off and said, ‘Why didn’t you keep them?’”
By the time Kath had realised she was the winner the bins had been emptied.
She told Allwyn what happened, with proof of purchase and doorbell footage from a hair salon showing her mum at the time.
She said: “I said to Allwyn, ‘If it didn’t beep, was it a fault on the machine?’. They said it was a possibility but it’s highly unlikely.
“They said it could be human error.”
The Londis has no CCTV because it is being renovated. Owner Karan Kumar said: “The machine could have been playing up. Now they are doing an investigation. It would be amazing if she won.”
Lottery play has been suspended in the shop while the investigation is carried out, with the machine and scratchcards removed.
Allwyn will now take up to 30 days to decide if Kath has won.
She said: “I’m the unluckiest person to win the lottery because I don’t have the money.
“I’m trying not to think about what I’d do with the money in case I don’t get it.”
However she admitted she would love to go to New Zealand for the Lions’ rugby tour in 2029.
Fiona said if they do not win “it will give charities a nice donation as it will go back to good causes”.
Allwyn confirmed the probe, adding it is “the only major lottery that allows players to claim a prize if a winning ticket has been lost, stolen or destroyed”.
Court battle, fraud & rapists
By Alex West
THE National Lottery has seen numerous wrangles over prize sums.
Charlotte Cox, 39, ditched Michael Cartlidge, 41, weeks after the couple scooped £1million on a scratchcard.
She bought the card in Spalding, Lincs. Security engineer Michael said he suggested the purchase and tried to transfer money to her in the shop.
Camelot, which ran the Lottery at the time, launched a probe in 2024 and indicated the winnings would be split.
Allwyn then took over the Lotto and awarded Charlotte all the prize. Michael has begun legal action for half the cash.
In 2019, beggars Mark Goodram and Jon-Ross Watson, both from Bolton, fraudulently used a stolen debit card in London to buy scratchcards — with one winning £4million.
They never received the cash and instead were jailed for fraud.
Camelot was fined £3million for accepting a fraudulent £2.5million claim by rapist Edward Putman. He conspired with Giles Knibbs to forge a winning ticket in 2009.
Camelot insider Knibbs, 38, who had access to the numbers of unclaimed winning tickets, took his own life in 2015 after confessing the crime. Putman was then jailed for nine years in 2019 for fraud.
And rapist Iorworth Hoare won £7.2million on the Lotto in 2004 — buying the ticket on day release while serving time for attempted rape.
This content is sourced from www.thesun.co.uk and is shared for informational purposes only.
