The National Lottery has reportedly informed a man that he has 'no claim' to the winnings bought using his stolen debit card.
Joshua Addyman claims his card details were stolen and used by fraudsters to purchase a £4 million-winning scratchcard back in 2019.
Jon-Ross Watson and Mark Goodram, from Bolton, had acquired the winning scratchcard in London, bagging one of the three maximum Red scratchcard jackpots of £4 million. After police investigations, they ultimately accepted charges of fraud.
Joshua reported to The Sun being entirely unaware of his association with this incident and stated having never met the fraudster pair. He expressed: "If I got any of it that [the £4million] would be brilliant."
He elaborated on his lack of insight into the matter, stating, "No one ever told me it was because someone won £4million."
Despite previous experiences of card theft, Joshua found the attention pertaining to this case rather unusual, stating, "I've had my card stolen before, I was like 'why is this such a big deal? ' no one ever explained it to me," reports Birmingham Live.
He further dwelled on the situation: "If it was about people winning £4million on my card, I would have been interested to see what happens to these people."
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He also revealed receiving persistent inquiries regarding the case. He said: "They kept calling me, they even sent police to my house... but I was like 'I'm not going to Manchester to say I don't know what's going on, I don't know anything.'"
"At the end of 2020, they're asking me to go to court and even at this point I still had no idea.
"I even asked them 'Hi, what is this for? ' And they just ignored it. This was right at the peak of Covid, I didn't want to go to a court room full of people just for my card getting stolen."
A spokesperson for GMP stated: "We conducted a full investigation into a case of fraud by false misrepresentation which resulted in two men receiving custodial sentences.
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"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."
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