Lotto Winners Found!
Last Updated: Tuesday 3rd July 2018, 12:09
The winners of a £772,906 share of a Lotto jackpot were found only after a local newspaper urged readers to check their old tickets again.
The ticket, which lottery organisers knew had been purchased in Hull, had won on Saturday 3 March, 2007, but a week passed and nobody had come forward to claim the prize. Then two weeks passed and there still hadn't been a claim. In fact it was almost a month after the draw itself that Stephen Gore, who leads a pub syndicate of 16 members, realised they were the ones sitting on a fortune.
Stephen checked the ticket when a member of the syndicate brought the unclaimed prize to his attention. After discovering their good fortune, he contacted another member, Graham Holgate, and told him about the win. The pair decided to get the win verified officially before informing the rest of the syndicate.
"I had not checked our tickets for a few weeks," Stephen said. "When I heard that a jackpot hadn't been claimed, I thought 'it can't be us'. When I found out I was stunned - I was at home eating fish and chips at the time but not even that wonderful news could stop me finishing them first!"
Graham explained why they decided to get official verification of the win before telling other members about it. "We did not want to get people's hopes up until we were really sure," he said. "Now we can really start celebrating properly. We've already had a couple of rehearsals! It's early days for all of us. It feels fantastic but it has still has not quite sunk in yet. I think my bank manager will be even more delighted than me about the win!"
With everyone in the syndicate now fully aware of the Lotto luck they've had, plans to spend to cash are well and truly underway. The collective shopping list currently includes holidays, new cards, home improvement projects and becoming debt-free. We're also guessing that the syndicate will start checking their tickets more often too!