Spanish lottery vendor sentenced for cheating winner out of €4.7 million

A lottery vendor in A Coruña, Spain, has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for cheating a customer out of a €4.7 million jackpot. The incident occurred in 2012 when the customer asked the vendor to check his ticket numbers.

Upon realizing the ticket was a winner, the vendor deliberately deceived the customer, falsely telling him that none of his numbers had come up. The vendor then attempted to claim the prize himself, asserting he had found the winning ticket in his shop. However, the local lottery administration withheld the prize, keeping the ticket in custody while investigating its ownership.

Despite the investigation, the vendor persisted in trying to claim the prize for eight years. The true owner of the winning ticket passed away in 2014. Ultimately, a court found the vendor guilty of aggravated fraud and ordered that the full prize money be paid out to the victim's heirs. The judgment is subject to appeal.