Man whose stolen card helped Lotto fraudsters scoop £4,000,000 hopes for a share
Thieves who bought the scratch card were jailed for fraud.
A man whose stolen debit card was used to buy a winning £4,000,000 scratch card hopes he might have a right to some of the cash.
Joshua Addyman’s card was taken by career criminals Jon-Ross Watson and Mark Goodram while they were on a stealing spree in London in 2019.
Goodram had seen Joshua use the card and wrote the details of the card on his hand.
Soon after, the pair, from Bolton, spent around £180 of Josh’s money, which included buying the winning Red scratchcard.
They went on a five-day drinking session to celebrate but Camelot – who ran the lottery at that time – began investigating when Goodram said he didn’t have a bank account and that a friend had given them the debit card to buy the ticket.
The men claimed the friend was called John but wouldn’t offer a surname or address, saying he wanted to remain anonymous.
They eventually pleaded guilty to fraud and were jailed in 2021.
But the Sun has reported that Joshua had no idea his card had been used to by the scratchcard until they told him last week.
He now wonders if some of the jackpot should go to him.
‘If I got any of it [the £4 million] that would be brilliant,’ he said.
Joshua had been on a night out in Clapham when his card was taken.
He noticed two transactions of £90 come up on his bank account, and – realising the card had been stolen – cancelled it straight away.
The bank soon refunded him the £180 and Joshua thought that was the end of it.
But he was later contacted by Greater Manchester Police over the matter, and at the end of 2020 they asked him to attend court in Manchester.
‘No one ever told me it was because someone won £4 million. I’ve had my card stolen before, I was like ‘why is this such a big deal?’ No one ever explained it to me.’
He said he decided against going, because he lived in London, it was at the height of Covid and they wouldn’t explain why it was important he attend.
‘I definitely would have been more cooperative if they told me what was happening,’ he added.
The Metro spoke to current lottery operator Allwyn who said Josh didn’t have any claim to the winnings as the scratch card was bought fraudulently.
They said: ‘There has been no reason for us to contact him as he is not the owner of the ticket and he has not contacted us.
‘The prize in question will be paid to National Lottery Good Causes after the expiry of the statutory limitation period starting from the end of the prize claim period for the relevant Scratchcard game.’
Asked why Josh was not told about the scratchcard win, Manchester Greater Police said: ‘We conducted a full investigation into a case of fraud by false misrepresentation which resulted in two men receiving custodial sentences.
‘We provided the victim with appropriate updates and information that protected the integrity of the investigation, and helped ensure the offenders were brought to justice.’
After Camelot uncovered the fraud, but before the men pleaded guilty, Goodram and Watson both sold the story of their win to The Sun and later hired celebrity lawyer Henry Hendron to try to get Camelot to release the £4 million. But they never received the money.
Both men already had extensive criminal records for dishonesty and were on licence at the time of the win.
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