Did She Win Or Didn’t She?

Can you imagine winning one-million-pounds on the lottery only to then be told it was a mistake…sounds like the stuff of nightmares but this is in fact a reality for one very unfortunate woman named Joan Parker-Grennan.

Mrs Parker-Grennan, from Boston, Lincolnshire, was playing online scratchcard games on the National Lottery website back in 2015 when she (thought) she had struck it lucky, only Camelot are refusing to pay her the £1m stated win 8-years on after claiming a “technical error”.

No Money Honey!

Not happy with being told she would only be able to make a withdrawal of just £10 despite the on-screen numbers stating she had triggered a million pound win, Mrs Parker-Grennan decided to take the lottery operator to court, as anyone would. Her lawyers explained to the High Court that her £5 instant win game rules stated that if a number in the “your numbers” section of the screen matched one in the winning numbers section, then those two matching numbers would turn white, indicating that the player had won the prize“designated by those matching numbers.”

Only Camelot are stating that at the point of her purchase, Mrs Parker-Grennan had purchased a scratchcard with a designated prize of just £10 with a message saying: “Congratulations, you have won £10.” When asked how was this possible, the operator stated that between August 25^th and 26^th 2015 there had been a “technical issue” which could result in “different graphical animations” being displayed on some players’ screens.

What Will It Be?

Lawyers representing Camelot say there is a “real prospect” of their client winning and Mrs Parker-Grennan’s case should be dismissed. Barrister Philip Hinks (Camelot’s legal team lead), stated that the operator was only liable to pay the “outcome of the ticket as predetermined” by Camelot’s computer system, that being £10 not £1m.

Barrister James Couser, representing Mrs Parker-Grennan, said there was “no real prospect of the claim being successfully defended. The dispute between the parties is actually quite a narrow one. The defendant says that the terms mean that the claimant is bound by what it intended the outcome of the game to have been, despite the fact that was not what the game was programmed to do accorded with what the relevant contractual term said it could do.”

Mr Justice Jay on Wednesday finished overseeing the latest stage of the dispute at a High Court hearing in London in a case he described as “interesting.”

This isn’t the first time a “scratchcard” winner hasn’t received their winnings. In 2019 Jon Watson, of Bolton, and Mark Goodram won £4m only to be sent to jail over their win! The two men headed to London where they bought a National Lottery scratchcard using stolen debit card details before landing the life-altering win. When trying to claim the prize, they revealed neither had a bank account, and this resulted in a jail sentence of 18-months for fraud.

Source:

“Woman Who Says She Won Lottery Million Awaits Judge’s Ruling On High Court Fight”, independent.co.uk, March 30, 2023.