Couple Claim £1 Million After Forgetting About Ticket
Last Updated: Tuesday 2nd July 2019, 10:34
A retired couple from Louth, Lincolnshire, left a Lotto Millionaire Raffle ticket worth £1 million unchecked on their kitchen counter for an entire week before finally realising they were the winners of a seven-figure windfall.
Winning Ticket Bought From McColl’s
Barry and Brenda Coupland’s winning code for the supplementary Millionaire Raffle remained untouched for seven days because they always check their tickets the following week. Their entry, bought at McColl’s in Eastgate, Louth, matched AQUA 7414 3806 in the draw on Saturday 14th July.
75-year-old Barry, a former designer who is partially deaf, explained: "I play two lines on Lotto every Wednesday and Saturday but I only get the tickets checked when I go to buy the following week’s tickets. This time when I handed my tickets over, the cashier told me that they couldn’t pay it out as we needed to ring Camelot.
“They said they could only pay up to £200 in store so I was rubbing my hands thinking I could surprise my wife with some flowers - £200 or £300 was going to be a real treat, it didn’t even cross my mind that it could be any more. The most I had won before was £70 so this was going to be a fantastic surprise!”
Barry rushed home to explain to his wife, Brenda, what had happened. She then telephoned the lottery’s customer service staff to discover they had in fact won an incredible £1 million. Brenda, a former school administrator, revealed: "I wish I could have captured the moment I found out we were millionaires. I think the colour must have drained from my face, I was just in absolute shock. I had one million pounds on my kitchen table for over a week and I didn’t even realise!”
Purchased a Mercedes Benz C200
The pair, who decided to go public with their win at a National Lottery event at The Priory Hotel in Louth, have already enjoyed spending some of their winnings. They’ve splashed out on a Mercedes Benz C200, and have revealed plans to go on several holidays, with Jamaica and Mauritius touted as possible destinations.
The Couplands would also like to help out their children and grandchildren financially, and have stated they have no intention to stop playing Lotto despite their big win. They have already bought their tickets for the next draw, and the win caps off a memorable period for the couple, who celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary just a week before their winning draw.
More Success For LN Postcode
The Louth-based winners, who have a postcode starting with ‘LN’, have followed in the footsteps of some other big winners from the same region over the years. There have been over 203 recipients of over £50,000 from LN postcodes since the National Lottery started in 1994. This includes Lincolnshire’s Richard and Angela Maxwell, who won a £53 million EuroMillions jackpot in April 2015, and Roy Gibney, a £7.5 million Lotto jackpot winner back in July 1998.
The Lotto jackpot for this Wednesday’s draw on 8th August currently stands at an estimated £10.8 million, so join a syndicate today to be in with a chance of becoming the latest millionaire.
