An enquiry into a lottery ticket query from back in 2009 has confirmed that Camelot, owners of the National Lottery paid out £2,500,000 on a fake lottery ticket!
The Gambling Commission has conducted the enquiry, which contains information on how Edward Putman, and lottery employee Giles Knibbs forged a lottery ticket and claimed a £2,500,000 jackpot. The press in the UK is increasing pressure for the full story, now relying on the Freedom of Information Act to see how this fraud happened.
Even Shadow Culture Secretary, Tom Watson has waded into the debate, calling the one off robbery the ‘Great Lotto Robbery’ and declaring that there can be no cover up at Lottery HQ.
The allegations of the fraud only came to light last year when Knibbs confessed to a friend and took his own life, had this not happened the £2,500,000 fraudulent claim may never have been spotted.
As a result of the theft, Camelot have been fined £3,000,000 for paying out the ticket in a license breach, especially as this money should have ended up in the fund for good causes.
Now it seems that the case has been handed to the police with Camelot saying that it did not want to ‘prejudice any further police action’, but the pressure for the Gambling Commission to publish the report is increasing.
The theft took place in 2009 and is an unprecedented event in UK Lottery history. The draw has taken place in the UK since 1994 and there has never been a large fraudulent claim, and it’s little wonder that officials want to ensure that this can never happen again in the future.