A man who bought a National Lottery ticket worth £4 million never saw a penny of his winnings - after his bank card was used by thieves.
Joshua Addyman scooped a winning scratchcard containing the life-changing sum in 2019 from a London Londis but was unaware of the purchase.
The ticket was bought using the 29-year-old's card which was stolen by Jon-Ross Watson and Mark Goodram, who used the cash, not for a new car or house, but for a five-day bender. Not only did Mr Addyman receive nothing, but he was none the wiser of the winnings and left to deal with the consequences, which nearly saw him summoned to court.
Jon-Ross Watson, 31, received a custodial sentence after stealing Mr Addyman's cardSpeaking to Birmingham Live, he said he was never informed by his bank that his card was used to purchase a £4 million ticket, and as a result he was left questioning: "Why is this such a big deal?".
He said police had treated the theft of what he believed was just his bank card as if it was a seven-figure sum and "going way over the top with it". Josh said police were sent to his home and that he was nearly sent to court at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020.
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He said: "I definitely would have been more cooperative if they told me what was happening. All they sounded like was that my card got stolen, and they were going way over the top with it."
He added: "They kept calling me, they even sent police to my house...but I was like 'I'm not going to Manchester to say I don't know what's going on, I don't know anything'.
Jon-Ross Watson won £4m on a scratch card with friend Mark Goodram
Mark Goodram denied any wrongdoing in relation to the incident"At the end of 2020, they're asking me to go to court and even at this point I still had no idea. I even asked them 'Hi, what is this for?' And they just ignored it. This was right at the peak of Covid, I didn't want to go to a courtroom full of people just for my card getting stolen."
Goodram, 38 of no fixed address but from Bolton, Greater Manchester, has been jailed for 19 months after pleading guilty to three counts of fraud and breaching his bail conditions. Ross Watson, 31, received a custodial sentence.
The men's chances of clinching the £4 million were "one in four million"A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "We provided the victim with appropriate updates and information that protected the integrity of the investigation, and helped ensure the offenders were brought to justice."
GMP Detective Constable Michelle Wilkinson, of the Complex Fraud Team, said: "This was quite an extraordinary case as Goodram and Watson's chances of claiming this scratch card were one in four million. Unfortunately for them, they had knowingly bought this ticket through fraudulent means.
Goodram and Watson's actions were dubbed "selfish and unscrupulous""While the massive winnings were never put in the wrong hands and no one came to any harm, there is no doubt in my mind that these men would have gladly accepted this money without any remorse for their illicit ways of obtaining it.
"The vigilance of staff at Camelot has to be commended, and the subsequent investigation by our team at the Complex Fraud Team has ensured that these two men are rightly behind bars and can learn to accept how their selfish and unscrupulous actions were far from acceptable."
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