Lotto Jackpot Landed by Syndicate
Last Updated: Friday 21st March 2014, 17:00
Six friends from Warrington who play the Lotto as a syndicate landed a half-share of the jackpot on Saturday 7 December, 2013, but they didn’t claim their prize until six weeks later. The syndicate, which is made up completely of women, is led by Julie Phillips. Julie buys the syndicate lottery tickets a month in advance, and only checks old tickets when buying the next batch. With Christmas occurring in the middle of her buying pattern, it was all too easy for the jackpot win to go unnoticed.
‘With Christmas being so busy I had just not checked the last ticket we bought,’ Julie explained. ‘It was just sitting on top of the fridge in our kitchen. It was only because I was in Warrington shopping and I walked past the kiosk where I normally buy our tickets that I decided to check. I had put the ticket in my bag before I went out in case I passed anywhere to check the numbers. But just as I got to the front of the queue, the machine stopped working.'
The story could have taken a bad turn right there, in which case the syndicate might still be unaware of its win, but fortunately the happy ending wasn’t delayed by more than a few moments. ‘I was about to walk away when the assistant managed to get it working again,’ Julie explained. The repair was timely, because the machine instantly started ringing to let her know that her ticket was a big winner, and the person behind the counter instructed her to call the lottery company to lodge her claim directly. ‘Everyone in the queue starting to cheer and I just walked away calmly, joking: “You may see me in the papers next week as a lottery winner.”’
Julie called the lottery company as the retailer had suggested, and she soon discovered that the ticket actually had won a headline-worthy sum. ‘When the lady on the end of the phone confirmed I really had won I just could not believe it,’ Julie said. ‘I just went silent. I thought initially it was £17k and she had to tell me about three times it was the jackpot and £1.7m. I just didn’t believe it was true!’
The exact size of the win was £1,758,997, so each of the six syndicate members is now £293,166 richer than they were beforehand. We wish all of the winners the very best for the future, and thank them for going public about their success and inspiring the rest of us to try and win big in a similar manner.
The Lotto game tonight will offer a brand new jackpot that is expected to be worth around £2.3 million, and the Lotto Raffle game will create 50 winners of £20,000 each. Visit the Lottery Tickets page to enter your numbers online and good luck!