£33m could be yours... if you live in Worcester
Half of biggest Lotto prize still hasn’t been claimed
THE hunt for the missing winner of £33million in the National Lottery homed in on Worcester yesterday. Lotto organisers have released details of where the ticket was sold after the winner failed to come forward.
The buyer, who is presumably unaware of their good fortune, has until July 7 to present the ticket or forfeit the sum to good causes.
The prize of £33million is a half share in the biggest ever jackpot offered by the National Lottery since it launched in 1994.
However, it is not the biggest win that has gone unclaimed. The holder of a EuroMillions ticket bought in the Stevenage and Hitchin area of Hertfordshire in June 2012, which carried a prize of £63.8million, never came forward. And there are a collection of £1million prizes waiting to be claimed in Preston, Staffordshire, Hull, Swansea, Rochdale, Lancashire, Liverpool and Durham.
The rules of the game say winners have 180 days to find their ticket and make a claim before the cash and any interest is donated to good causes. Those who believe they may have won but have lost the ticket can register a claim with the lottery organisers within 30 days of the draw.
Camelot knows exactly where and when any winning tickets were bought and can use this information to verify claims.
The company will only say that the £33million ticket was purchased somewhere in the city of Worcester. The actual shop that sold the ticket has reportedly not been informed.
The other half of the £66million prize went to David and Carol Martin from Hawick in the Scottish Borders, who celebrated their win last week. The couple, both 54, said their first purchase after realising they had won was six champagne glasses for £5.
The couple admitted they were so stunned after matching all six numbers that they initially just sat ‘looking at each other and drinking lots of tea’. One of their first priorities was to fly their 26year-old daughter Lisa home on a first class ticket from Australia, where she had been working. They also indicated that they would help victims of flooding in their home town.
A National Lottery spokesman said: ‘We’re desperate to find this mystery ticket-holder and unite them with their winnings and we’re urging everyone to try checking in the pockets of clothing, in wallets, bags, down the back of the sofa and anywhere a missing ticket could be hiding.’
He added: ‘Our player services team are on standby waiting for the ticket-holder to come forward and claim their prize.
‘They have great expertise in helping winners embrace lifechanging wins and making sure that they are able to start to enjoy their new-found wealth as quickly as possible.’
Camelot said it was ‘highly unusual’ for a prize to go unclaimed following the level of excitement around the record jackpot.