Blairgowrie Advertiser

FESTIVE CRACKER AS STAFF HIT £1M JACKPOT

Work syndicate’s delight

- Clare Damodaran

Christmas has come early for a syndicate of sixteen ventilatio­n workers from Coupar Angus after they scooped an incredible £1m in the EuroMillio­ns UK Millionair­e Maker earlier this month.

Each member will now receive a minimum of £62,500 – just in time for a spectacula­r Christmas shopping spree.

The MJV Syndicate – named after the group’s place of work, MJVentilat­ion in Coupar Angus – only started playing together in February this year and couldn’t believe their luck when they found out they’d won the life-changing amount.

Syndicate leader, Darren Graham (35) said: “I can’t believe it – and I’m still in shock! We’ve all worked together for a number of years but only decided to start the syndicate earlier this year; to win £1 million in such a short time is truly amazing.”

Speaking about how he discovered that the group had won, Darren added: “I nipped into the local Scotmid to check our tickets and the sales advisor said that we’d ‘won a substantia­l amount of money’ on one of them.

“I asked how much but she couldn’t tell me and advised that I phone the claim line. I remember having a laugh with her at that point and jokingly saying ‘maybe I’ve won the jackpot’ – little did I know!”

Darren continued: “I decided to check the results online first to see if I could get any answers. As soon as I saw the matching UK Millionair­e Maker code I realised and it suddenly hit me – we’d just won £1million.

“Even though I could see it plain as day, I still couldn’t, or wouldn’t, let myself believe it. I kept second guessing it and thinking that there was going to be a catch.

“I told the rest of the syndicate members at work on the Monday and that’s really when it sank in. Their reactions were so different, from jumping up and down while screaming, to complete and utter disbelief.

“That was such a special day in the office, but I was still getting asked if I was joking at 5pm!

“We’ve all been on such a high that none of us have really had a chance to think about what we’re going to spend our winnings on. Personally, I’ll be looking into putting a deposit down on a new house.

“As a group, I think this is going to be a pretty spectacula­r Christmas and New Year – although, I don’t think the presents under the Christmas tree are going to be nearly as good as this one!”

The MJV Syndicate played EuroMillio­ns every Friday, purchasing 16 Lucky Dip tickets – one for every syndicate member.

The group purchased their winning ticket from the Scotmid Co-operative at The Cross in Coupar Angus.

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