Swindon couple to pay back £15,000 to rightful winner

A Swindon couple have been ordered to hand over the £15,000 winning that they cashed in on when finding a lottery ticket on a supermarket floor.  The real winner, a Mrs Dorothy McDonagh, aged 61-years-old, had dropped her lottery ticket by accident on her local Co-op floor.

A few minutes later, Mrs Amanda Stacey, aged 34, spotted the ticket and saw that it was a winner with a cash prize of £30,000. She took the ticket to her husband, Michael, and after cashing the ticket spent half of the prize on new carpets, treats for their children and on clearing debts.

However Dorothy had realised that she had a winning lottery ticket after checking her numbers and contacted the police. With the aid of Camelot, the lotto organiser, the police located the fraudulent couple in Swindon who quickly admitted theft and fraud. At court the couple were given a suspended sentence of eleven months. The remaining £15,000 is to be paid back to Dorothy by the couple.

The lawyers of the Staceys have argued that by finding the ticket it was luck rather than theft.

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