A would-be lottery winner has opened up on the “gutting” moment his hopes of a mega windfall were dashed by a “glitch” on a ticket machine.
Dean Smethurst, a supermarket worker from Lancashire, had his eyes on a five-figure payout after a message appeared on a till informing him he’d scooped a sizeable National Lottery win.
Said message, he’d discovered, only appeared for winners of £50,000-valued or higher prizes – and Smethurst had been told to get in touch with organisers at Camelot – who ran the National Lottery before January this year – as his local Tesco in Farnworth wouldn’t be able to pay out there and then.
He’d said at the time: “I’d gone in to do a bit of shopping and I thought I’d check to see how I’d gone on in the previous Saturday’s draw.
Dean Smethurst had his eyes on a five-figure payout
Getty/Post Office
“The receipt said I’d won a prize, the store would not be able to pay out, and that I should contact Camelot immediately – all the other staff applauded me.”
The promise of riches had left him dreaming of splashing the cash – if he could catch some shut-eye at all – with Smethurst claiming he “didn’t sleep” because he was so excited.
He’d even told family and friends about his plans to put some ongoing house renovations to bed and splurge on a trip to Barbados.
But before he could access his apparent jackpot, he’d have to wait a day for Camelot’s phone lines to open so he could file a claim for his winnings.
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The would-be winner thought he’d scooped a jackpot at Tesco in Farnworth
Then, however, calamity struck – it wasn’t a £50,000 prize, and Smethurst had won just £6 on three “lucky dips”.
He said: “I never thought to check my numbers, I didn’t think a company as large as Camelot could have got it wrong – I didn’t understand.”
He then explained that his winning message from the till had been a case of unlucky timing, saying: “When I had purchased the ticket I had bought one for both the Saturday and Wednesday draw.
“As the Wednesday draw was in the process of taking place, it looks like this was an automated message instead which would have been given for any win.
Camelot said Smethurst had tried to claim a prize during a “draw break”
PA
“I was absolutely gutted – it’s back to the drawing board now.”
A Camelot spokesman said: “In this instance, the player attempted to claim a prize during a ‘draw break’, when National Lottery sales are suspended while a draw takes place.
“The prize couldn’t be paid out at that time – because the ticket was still entered into a ‘live’ draw – so a validation slip was printed instead.
“To clarify, this generic slip is used for a number of scenarios – it’s not exclusively used for high-tier prizes.”
