Lottery player left ‘sickened’ after shopkeeper throws away winning £12,000,000

A lottery player insists she had the winning numbers after her ticket was allegedly binned in error.

Mum-of-two Kath Main from Abercynon, South Wales, could be painfully close to a £12 million lottery jackpot.

She claims her mum gave away the ticket for it to be binned at her local shop after no winner was detected.

Kath says she has been using the same numbers, 08, 10, 26, 30, 35 and 42, for 20 years in the hopes of hitting the bonanza.

Her mum had put the lottery on for the June 6 draw and checked at the Londis in Abercynon, where she was told it was not the winner, The Sun reports.

But when Kath saw in the news that the prize was unclaimed for the numbers, she rang her mum.

She told the outlet: ‘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.”

The machine is said to have not beeped, and her mum claims the shop owner told her nothing came up on the screen, so she agreed for the ticket to be thrown in the bin.

By the time the pair realised what happened, the bin day had been.

Lottery operator Allwyn has launched an investigation into the mystery, but it could take up to 30 days for a decision on whether Kath won.

Kath, a rugby club secretary, told The Sun: ‘I just feel sick all the time, it’s the not knowing and waiting.’

She provided Allwyn with proof of purchase and doorbell footage showing her mum at the time the ticket was made.

Kath claimed that Allwyn told her that if the machine didn’t beep, it could be a human error, while a faulty machine was ‘highly unlikely.’

Owner of the Londis, Karan Kumar, said: ‘The machine could have been playing up. Now they are doing an investigation. It would be amazing if she won.’

The shop currently has no CCTV because it is undergoing a renovation.

An Allwyn spokesperson said: ‘As operator of the National Lottery, we take our duty of care to players very seriously. We are currently investigating a claim relating to a potentially winning ticket.

‘The National Lottery is the only major lottery in the world that allows players to claim a prize if a winning ticket has been lost, stolen or destroyed. Our priority is making sure that every prize is correctly paid to the right person.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.