Irish Lottery Winner Still Empty Handed

17th June 2009 12:50 PM

Confusion over ownership of a lottery ticket has meant that one Irish Lottery winner is still empty handed after verification needs means that he couldn’t collect his €350,000 Irish Lottery Win. Dermot Finglas left lottery headquarters yesterday empty handed after being told by officials that clarifications had to be made before his win was released to him.

The confusion has been raised over the fact that the Irish Lottery ticket was actually left in the store where it was purchased. The stores shopkeeper Tom Heavey was determined to see the winning ticket returned to its rightful owner and so had tracked Mr Finglas down using CCTV footage from the store.

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However Irish Lottery officials say that he isn’t guaranteed the €350,000 winnings just yet as they feel a number of points need to be clarified due to the unprecedented and unusual circumstances surrounding the lottery win.

Because the ticket was left in the store where it was purchased Mr Heavey signed his name on the back of the ticket with the message ‘paid for’ after Mr Finglas walked out of the store without collecting it. Mr Heavey wanted to ensure the ticket wasn’t sold to anyone else. However this signature means that the lottery windfall cannot be paid out before consultations with the signee and this is just one of the things holding up the win.

The CCTV image from the store was published in local newspapers and it was Mr Finglas’ father who recognised him from the pictures. It is understood that lottery officials are satisfied that Mr Finglas is the genuine winner but they still have to conduct enquiries as a matter of course.

Mr Finglas is very unhappy about his situation but we guess he will get his Irish Lottery win soon enough. One thing he is very happy about is the honesty of Mr Heavey from the store and he says that once he gets his winnings he will be rewarding that honesty.

The next Irish Lottery draw will be held this evening and the best way of ensuring you don’t leave your ticket in the store for any of our world lottery draws is to click the banners and play online.

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