‘I had never paid out £50 before, never mind £58m’
THE teenage shop worker who tore up and binned the winning lottery ticket spoke of his shock last night at finding out how much it was worth.
Sean Grant, 18, was working behind the till in Scotmid on Laurencekirk’s High Street when he made the blunder.
He had been asked to check two EuroMillions tickets for the July 10 draw belonging to regular customer Fred Higgins.
But he was so used to just handing out small amounts from the cash register that when the machine chimed to say there was a winning ticket he automatically ripped it in two and threw it in the bin.
It was only after a message came up on the lottery terminal that he realised his error – as it told him there was not enough cash in the building to make the payout.
He immediately apologised to Mr Higgins for the ‘honest mistake’ and returned the ticket.
However, it was not until Scotmid bosses phoned the former Mearns
‘I just want them to enjoy their winnings’
Academy pupil on Wednesday night that he found out how much Mr Higgins had won.
Mr Grant said: ‘I’d seen him a couple of times in the store but I wouldn’t know him to speak to in the street.
‘He gave me two tickets. The first one I put through the ticket machine and it wasn’t a winner so I binned it.
‘The second one came through with the winning noise but I automatically just ripped it, thinking it would be for £10 or £20 – 99 per cent of people don’t want the ticket returned to them.
‘But when I came back to the lottery machine it said it was in excess of what we could pay, so I had to return the ticket to Mr Higgins.
‘As soon as I saw that I had to give him the ticket back, I went back to the bin straightaway.
‘I apologised to Mr Higgins, gave him the ticket and said to him that he had to phone Camelot because I thought he had won a decent amount.’
The teenager added: ‘We were both clueless. We had no idea how much he had won.
‘For me to get a phone call last night to say he had won £58million was just amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever paid out £50, never mind £58million. I don’t know what you’d do with that money, to be honest.
‘For a local couple to win is just amazing. You would never think that would happen. I just want them to enjoy their winnings.’
Mr Grant said that, despite the massive win in his home town, he had not been convinced to take up gambling.
At least he seems to have learned his lesson about dealing with lottery tickets in future, saying: ‘I definitely won’t be ripping them up.’