Lottery Scam Gets Two Shopkeepers to Prison

Mar 21, 2012
Lottery Scam Gets Two Shopkeepers to Prison
A customer's GBP 156,659 winning lottery ticket stolen, the shopkeepers told him it was worth only GBP 10

A report arrived this week that a shopkeeper form Norfolk UK and his wife have been arrested and convicted to a 14-month prison sentence for stealing an ageing lottery winner's GBP 156,659 ticket and trying to cash it in as their own.

The claim made by Alfred Jeevarajah, 45, and his 38-year-old wife Anne became suspicious to lottery operator Camelot, which then conducted an investigation and exposed their fraud, which was assessed by Norwich Crown Court for what Judge Alasdair Darroch as a “flagrant breach of trust”.

What actually happened was that winning ticket holder Gwyn Badham-Davies, aged 73, went to Anne Jeevarajah to check the ticket. Anne then scanned the ticket on her lottery terminal and instead of informing Badham-Davies that he had qualified for a life-changing win, told him he had won only GBP 10 for matching three numbers and she kept the real winning ticket.

Things became suspicious a week later, when Alfred Jeevarajah tried to claim the winning prize from lottery operator Camelot, as there was a significant delay over a claim for a ticket that had been scanned in the claimant's own shop.

The investigation saw Jeevarajah unable to confirm the details of the place of purchase, so he had to admit that the ticket belonged to Badham-Davies, who was then able to claim his prize.

The two Sri Lankans admitted their charges - Anne Jeevarajah to theft and fraud while her husband admitted fraud.

According to a Camelot spokeswoman, “We can monitor every single ticket purchased. The success of the National Lottery is built on player trust. Camelot will not allow that trust to be undermined in any way.”
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