Two friends couldn’t contain their joy after scooping a whopping prize of almost €5 million (£4 million) on a lottery scratchcard.
CCTV footage from a Londais shop that was released by police shows the pair jumping around as they won the life-changing sum the Manchester Evening News reports.
Mark Goodram and Jon Watson from Bolton Lancashire couldn’t hold back their excitement and celebrated the ‘win’ in front of the onlooking shopkeeper.
The video shows Watson, 34, dancing around the convenience store while Goodram, 38, bangs his fists on the counter before striking a celebratory pose to the shopkeeper.
However, things soon turned sour as the pals instigated their own undoing.
After attempting to claim the money from Camelot on April 22, 2019, Goodram revealed he did not have a bank account to deposit the funds into.
The revelation caused suspicion about how the lucky scratchcard was bought, and an investigator from Camelot called Goodram to ask about the card he used to make the purchase.
Goodram told the investigator his friend John had bought it for him as he “owed him money” but was unable to provide John’s surname or address.
The card was discovered to have belonged to a man named Joshua Addyman.
Upon the discovery, the two men were jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to fraud at Bolton Crown Court on the first day of their trial.
Detective Constable Michelle Wilkinson of our Complex Fraud Team said: "This was quite an extraordinary case as Goodram and Watson's chances of claiming this scratch-card were one in four million; but unfortunately for them, they had knowingly bought this ticket through fraudulent means.
"While the massive winnings were never put in the wrong hands and no one came to any harm, there is no doubt in my mind that these men would have gladly accepted this money without any remorse for their illicit ways of obtaining it.
"The vigilance of staff at Camelot has to be commended, and the subsequent investigation by our team at the Complex Fraud Team has ensured that these two men are rightly behind bars and can learn to accept how their selfish and unscrupulous actions were far from acceptable."
