A south Wales mother-of-two is set to receive a £12million lottery jackpot after her winning ticket was discarded by a shopkeeper when it failed to scan on the store’s machine.
Kath Main, a 46-year-old rugby club secretary, purchased her usual lucky numbers for the Saturday draw on June 6 but was wrongly told she hadn’t won when her mother took the ticket to be checked at a Londis store in Abercynon, Rhondda Cynon Taf.
The shop owner threw the ticket in the bin after the machine produced no confirmation of a win.
It was only days afterwards that Ms Main was stunned to discover through media reports that an unclaimed jackpot had been won in her local area, with numbers identical to hers.
Lottery operator Allwyn has now completed a 30-day inquiry into the incident and confirmed that Ms Main is on track to collect the life-changing sum — provided no other claimant comes forward within 180 days of the original draw date.
Ms Main’s six winning numbers — 8, 10, 26, 30, 35 and 42 — were chosen based on a combination of her and husband Marcus’s birthdays, the ages they were when they first began playing, and two additional random selections “to make it up to six”.
Her mother Fiona, who runs a café, had visited the Abercynon shop to check the ticket on her daughter’s behalf.
When the machine gave no response, the store owner disposed of the slip without further inquiry.
Kath Main is set to receive her jackpot after a shop keeper threw her winning ticket in the bin
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PA
Ms Main told The Sun she “feels sick all the time” as she waits for the payout, adding that she hopes to spend part of the windfall on attending a Lions rugby tour of New Zealand.
Shop owner Karan Kumar has previously recounted the moment: “The woman came in to check the numbers and there was no beep on the machine, nothing came up on the screen, so we just binned them.
“It would be amazing if she won.”
An Allwyn spokesman highlighted the organisation’s distinctive approach: “We are the only major lottery which is able to look to pay a winner even if they have lost their ticket.”
Another National Lottery winner was involved in an incident at his local gym last week
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GOOGLE MAPSThe spokesman added that the investigation process is designed to verify that any claim originates from the rightful ticketholder, after which payment can be made at Allwyn’s discretion once the 180-day claim window has closed.
Ms Main’s story comes amid a separate incident involving another National Lottery winner.
Adam Lopez, a former builder from Norwich who won a scratch card fortune and holds a Guinness World Record, has revealed he was embroiled in a heated dispute at his local gym after being body-shamed by a fellow member.
Mr Lopez claims a woman loudly suggested he should take up sumo wrestling during a visit to Nuffield Health on Barrack Street, saying it happened “in front of a good handful of members” and that the poolside lifeguard failed to intervene.
He retaliated with an Instagram post in which he called the woman fat.
He later conceded his response was “brutal” but justified by saying: “I was really annoyed,” he said to Eastern Daily Press.
The fallout saw Nuffield Health lodge a “serious complaint” against him, with a meeting with management scheduled to address the matter.