A €4.7 million lottery jackpot sparked an eight-year legal battle in Spain after a vendor allegedly tried to steal the winnings from the rightful ticket-holder — and a court has now handed down a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence, according to court documents.
The court in the northwestern city of A Coruña said the vendor understood the customer had landed a major prize in 2012 when the man asked him to check the numbers. Instead of reporting the win, the ruling states, the seller intentionally misled the ticket-holder and told him that none of his numbers had been drawn.
After turning the customer away, the vendor then attempted to collect the jackpot himself, claiming he had discovered the winning ticket inside his shop.
Lottery officials did not release the money, however. The local lottery administration held back the payout, kept the ticket in custody and began efforts to identify its real owner.
Court documents show that even as those inquiries continued, the seller repeatedly tried to claim the prize over the course of eight years.
The legitimate owner of the winning ticket died in 2014, but the court ordered that the entire prize be paid to the victim’s heirs.
The court convicted the vendor of aggravated fraud. The judgment is not final and can be appealed to the country’s Supreme Court.
