May 1st, 2019 2.00pm
The Easter Bunny has been extremely generous this year and the annual egg hunt ended with a £4M jackpot for two ex-convicts who bought a Camelot scratch card on Easter Monday. But, the Bunny giveth and the Bunny taketh away – in a strange twist of faith and irony, the £4M winning ticket turned out to be purchased with a stolen debit card, which could make it worthless…
Crime Doesn’t Pay?
Mark Goodram and his “partner in crime” (quite literally, as it turns out) Jon-Ross Watson started celebrating their new found fortune a bit too early, as Camelot launches a formal investigation which will hopefully shed some light on the circumstances in which the pair acquired the ticket.
At the moment, the prospects seem bleak for the winners who have already made plans for future investments – luxury real estates and Caribbean cruises. With no way of proving that the debit card used for buying the scratch card was acquired legally, the winners are faced with the strong possibility of forfeiting the jackpot.
The entire affair took a detour after Goodram and Watson posted a graceful announcement about their stroke of good luck. A video was sent to all of their friends, urging them not to hate on the lucky winners. As it happens, their acquaintances will now have more reason to empathize than hate. After discovering that neither of the two has bank accounts – despite using the debit card to buy the scratch ticket – Camelot put a stop to the payment and initiated an investigation.
The Card That Fell Out from the Back of a Truck…
When questioned about the origin of the payment card, the two insisted that it belonged to a mysterious friend who conveniently preferred to remain anonymous. This was sufficient for Camelot to refuse the cashout, which, as expected, was not taken kindly by the winners.
Goodram claims that Camelot’s decision not to pay up was triggered by the compromising past that the two friends share.
“Camelot bosses are messing us around, probably because they know we’ve had a lively past and been in prison”.
Recent years were quite colourful for both Watson and Goodram, who were even on the Bolton’s Most Wanted list at a certain point of their “careers”. According to local media, Watson has had several convictions for various offences, including bank fraud. Goodram seems to share his enthusiasm for illicit lifestyle, having been jailed for burglary in 2018.
Camelot’s Unpromising Track Record
This is not the first time Camelot refused to pay up. In 2018, £200,000 jackpot was denied to Mr. Eric Walker who was suspected of tampering with his ticket. The unemployed father of four was accused of altering the letter F to appear as E, which invalidated the ticket and left him empty-handed.
In 2016, Camelot was in the centre of a completely different incident. This time, instead of refusing to issue a payment, the operators released £2.5M to a claimant who submitted a deliberately damaged ticket. The overlook cost Camelot £3M in donations to good causes, as decided by the UK Gambling Commission. Apparently, this was the second time Camelot dropped the ball; before making the involuntary £3M contribution, the operator was fined £300,000 for publishing the incorrect Lotto Millionaire Raffle results on the official National Lottery site.
It remains to be seen if the 5-day bender in celebration of the improved financial status will end up costing Goodram and Watson a lot more than they bargained for. A glimmer of hope may be hidden in the lack of Camelot’s official policy that would apply to this specific situation.
The Scratch Card That Launch’d a Thousand Ships