Pensioner crys foul over lottery payout

Last August Eileen Baker presented a winning lottery ticket to a cashier at Tesco, Ravenside.

Three of the numbers on her ticket had come up in the previous Wednesday night draw and she thought she had won 10.

However the cashier said she was mistaken, Eileen claimed.

Eileen said: "She told me it was not a winner, waved the ticket behind her head and said, 'you don't want this do you?' I felt suspicious and said I did want the ticket back."

The ticket was returned to Eileen and she decided to take it to another retailer to be checked. "I thought maybe I had made a mistake as I am almost 70 years old, however the sales assistant in WH Smith informed me that it was a winner but it had already been paid out."

Eileen said it was not so much the value of the ticket which concerned her but the principl.

She complained to Tesco's store manager and initial enquiries indicated that the mistake was due to computer error.

"They said they would investigate and I subsequently got a telephone call from a man in security who said it was the fault of the system, and that the staff member had received the wrong message. He said he was going to report a fault on the lottery machine to Camelot."

Eileen also contacted the police and a full investigation was launched.

She has since received a cheque for 10 and a letter from Camelot which said that her ticket was "processed on August 22 at Tesco Ravenside".

The letter continues: "I can only think that, due to either human error or momentary terminal failure, this authorisation slip may not have been received. If so the retailer may have been unaware that the ticket had been fully processed, and equally unaware that the prize could have been paid at the time."

After conducting a full investigation police informed Eileen that there was no evidence of criminal activity.

However, Eileen feels people should still be on their guard: "Supposing the ticket had been worth 5,000 or more? My advice is don't go into a shop and ask for the ticket to be checked. Check the numbers first yourself and always ask for the ticket to be returned to you."

Speaking on behalf of Tesco a spokesman said: "We are very sorry that this incident happened to Mrs Baker. A full investigation with local police and Camelot concluded that it was a genuine one-off error by the cashier."

A spokesman for Camelot said: "We are sorry for the inconvenience Mrs Baker has experienced. Tickets are the player's responsibility. If any players believe they have a winner they can ask the retailer for it back and post it to be checked at this address: Prize Payout Department, PO Box 287, Watford, WD18 9TT."

For further information visit the website at: www.national-lottery.co.uk

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