A man who believed he had a £50,000 lottery ticket rang up everyone he knew to share the brilliant news – only to realise he had actually won just £6.
Dean Smethurst had his lotto card checked on Wednesday, May 8 2019, and was told by the checkout girl he had won on the Saturday, May 4, game.
The checkout girl at a branch of Tesco told Dean the machine said she could not pay out his winnings and he would have to instead contact Camelot.
This prompted Dean to check the terms and conditions of the Camelot website – where he realised this message was usually given for wins of at least £50k which couldn’t be paid out in a retail shop.
In a state of shock, Dean, a supermarket manager who has played the lottery for six years, sped home before telling all of his friends and family the news.
He began to work out what he could spend the money on and “cracked open the bubbly” without thinking to check his numbers against the draw.
However, when the lottery phone lines opened again the next morning, Dean was given the devastating news that his luck was out.
His win actually turned out to be a measly three lucky dips on a future game – worth just £2 each.
He said: “I didn’t sleep because I was so excited. My house is like a building site at the moment so that was the first thing that I decided to spend my winnings on.
“Then I decided to treat the family to a luxury holiday to Barbados. I spoke to the checkout girl and gave her the serial number of the ticket. She inputted it and said: ‘Well done, you’ve won…three lucky dips’.
“I asked her if she was sure, and then I asked to speak to a manager. I am absolutely gutted. I thought, ‘this is it, it’s for real, my numbers have come up’.
“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.”
A spokesman for Camelot 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.”
Poor Dean was relieved he had the day off on Thursday so he didn’t have to face his colleagues .
He said: “I just watched television and my mum made me some comfort food, which wasn’t much comfort.”
