The UK gambling commission has fined their national lottery operator, Camelot, for three million pounds. Camelot was found in breach their operating license when they delivered a 2.5-million-pound lottery prize to a convicted rapist in 2009. Gambling Commission chief Sarah Harrison released this statement.
“Our main concern is ensuring the national lottery is run with integrity and that player interests are fully protected. That’s why we have today, imposed a 3-million-pound penalty on Camelot for their failings in response to an allegedly fraudulent national lottery prize claim that was made and paid out in 2009. Our investigation found that Camelot had breached the terms of its operating license as result of the way in which is dealt with the prize claim. Camelot’s failures in this case are serious and the penalty package reflects this. Importantly, the package also ensures that good causes will not lose out as a result of Camelot’s license breach. The 3-million-pound penalty includes 2 and a half million pounds to represent the amount that would have been received by good causes had the prize claim not been paid. Lottery players can feel reassured that our investigations have found no evidence of similar events happening and that controls are in place today to mitigate against future prize payout failings of this kind.”
Convicted rapist, Edward Putman is now 51, from Hertfordshire, and purportedly claimed the 2.5-million-pound prize with “a deliberately damaged” ticket. His winning lottery claim has gone unquestioned until 2015 when new evidence came into the picture and he was arrested. However, there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove his apparent fraud and they were forced to let him go.
Putman attempted to keep the win a secret, requesting anonymity, but was outed in 2012 when he was caught enjoying the fruits of his deceit. He splurged and bought two sports cars and a luxurious home to park them at. He later sent a letter pleading that his income and housing support be restored, making the claim that he was actually broke. This resulted in him being jailed for the second time in his life for nine months. The first time he was arrested was in 1993 when he was “a jobless bricklayer” after raping a teenager in Milton Keynes, Bucks.
This wasn’t the first time that someone has attempted to trick the lottery into handing them boatloads of cash. Back in 2009, A women named Amanda Stacey and her husband Michael tried to turn in a 30,000-pound winning ticket that they found on the floor of a supermarket in Swindon. They both got 11-month suspension from playing the lottery.
A Norfolk newsagent and her husband were jailed in 2012 when they purloined a ticket with the value of 156,000 pounds and tried to claim it as their own. Later that same year, a shopkeeper in Oldham was taken away to jail after convincing an elderly woman that her ticket wasn’t worth anything and then taking her 1-million-pound ticket and cashing it in.
