A shopkeeper tried to steal a £130,000 lottery win from a partially deaf pensioner.
Narendra Gill pocketed the winning ticket after checking it for customer Frank Gowland.
She told the 81-year-old the ticket was a loser – despite him matching five winning numbers and the bonus ball in the Euro Millions draw.
Mr Gowland had no idea he’d won a prize until the National Lottery team Camelot contacted him.
The lottery organisers were suspicious when Gill, 52, called them from a GT News shop in Leeds to claim her “win”.
They could hear in the background that she was serving customers and became suspicious about the claim.
She called only 15 minutes after Mr Gowland had left the shop.
He was indentified by CCTV footage from the shop.
Shop manager Gill, from York, admitted theft and fraud and was jailed for 28 months at Leeds Crown Court.
Recorder Dafydd Enoch, QC, told her she had been “unbelievably cruel”.
Mr Gowland told The Sun said after the case:
“The whole thing has been quite a shock.
“I had no clue I’d won until I got this phone call.
“I couldn’t hear what the PC was saying so I asked my stepson to deal with it.
“He said to the officer, ‘You must be joking, this is a scam’.
“Anyway, it wasn’t, and I had won.”
Mr Gowland gave Gill eight tickets to check.
She told him they were all losers and handed him back crumpled tickets, not realising she had switched them.
Mr Gowland added:
“The police knew everything.
“They even knew we bought toilet roll on the day.
“They told me the woman phoned Camelot, 15 minutes after I left, claiming to have a winning ticket.
“But they smelt a rat.
“She was lying through her teeth.
“It’s unbelievable really.
“I might never have known.”
Gill said before being sentenced:
“Obviously, I wish I had not done it.
“It was stupid.”
