Spanish lottery vendor who cheated winner out of €4.7 million faces jail
Lottery officials did not release the money. Instead, the local lottery administration withheld the payout and placed the ticket in custody while trying to determine its rightful owner.
A Spanish lottery vendor has been handed a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence after a court found he cheated the winner of a €4.7 million jackpot out of the prize in 2012, according to court documents.
The court in A Coruña, in northwestern Spain, said the vendor understood the scale of the win when the customer asked him to check the numbers. Instead of telling the truth, however, he misled the ticket-holder and said that none of the numbers had matched.
- Advertisement -
Judges found that the vendor then attempted to claim the jackpot for himself, alleging that he had found the winning ticket inside his shop.
Lottery officials did not release the money. Instead, the local lottery administration withheld the payout and placed the ticket in custody while trying to determine its rightful owner.
The actual owner of the winning ticket died in 2014, but the court ruled that the full prize must be paid to the victim’s heirs.
The vendor was convicted of aggravated fraud. The ruling is not yet final and may still be appealed before Spain’s Supreme Court.
