We won a £35 million lotto jackpot but ended up with NOTHING due to a blunder
A COUPLE who won a £35 million lottery jackpot were left with nothing because of a blunder.
Edwina and David Nylan, from Fleetwood, Lancs, were left devastated after discovering they had missed out on the life-changing windfall.
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The couple claimed they matched six of the winning lottery numbers while playing on the Lottomobile app at Christmas.
The couple hoped that in the new year their lives would turn around and they would become millionaires.
But what should have been the greatest moment of their lives ended in huge disappointment.
Edwina and David said they bought a ticket for the draw on December 23, 2015.
But their bill showed they did not have enough money to pay for the purchase of the £2 ticket.
They then deposited more money into the account and bought a ticket with the numbers 01 – 02 – 04 – 19 – 28 – 41.
Edwina said: “David has an app on his phone that allows him to generate random numbers.
“We wrote them down and they are saved on his phone.”
However, when the pair tried to claim the whopping £35,410,034 jackpot prize, Camelot told them they had no record of the transaction.
She added: “When the numbers came up it looked like we had all six and won the jackpot, but when I checked there was nothing from Camelot.
“I called Camelot customer service and the person I spoke to said they could see from their records that we were planning on purchasing those songs, but they said the purchase was canceled because we only had 60 cents in our account to stand.
“We had tried to top up the account but hadn't realized that we hadn't registered either.
“You will receive an email to confirm your purchase, but I didn't check this as it was just before Christmas and I was so busy.
“Camelot has now told me that they are looking into it with their IT department.”
Despite the major blunder, the couple decided to participate in the lottery.
Edwina said: “I'm gutted, but what can we do?
“We've been playing for years and have had an online account for a while, so it's not like we didn't know what we were doing.
“I just had to get on with things and not get too down.
“Shocked isn't the right word, but as a family we stick together and just have to be grateful for what we have.”
Camelot claimed that the couple tried to buy the tickets several times but could not confirm whether or not they won.
A spokesperson said: “The player attempted to purchase an online Lotto ticket several times from 7pm on December 23 (the cut-off point for purchasing tickets is 7.30pm) but there were insufficient funds in the player's account – thus the attempted purchases were unsuccessful.
“The player would have received an error message confirming this on each occasion.
“Only tickets that have been successfully purchased can participate in the draw.
“It is therefore up to players to ensure that they have sufficient funds in their account to complete a ticket purchase.”
DON'T AVOID MISSING LOTTERY WINNINGS
FOR lottery players, losing a winning ticket is a nightmare, especially if they think they have won big.
Lotto expert Andy Carter – a senior winners advisor at the National Lottery – told the Sun there's no need to worry.
- He urged Britons to call the National Lottery as soon as possible to report their ticket as missing.
- Players have a month to do this and risk losing all of their prize if they don't remember.
- Players must also remember where and when they purchased their tickets so National Lottery staff can retrieve their numbers.
- And finally, he said the best way to avoid panic over missing tickets is to buy from the National Lottery app.
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