She feels “treated like a criminal”.
Amelia Barnham, a 69-year-old British woman, won the sum of 800 pounds, or approximately 930 euros, more than a month ago but has still not received her winnings.
The reason ?
Her success in the British lottery is suspect in the eyes of the company responsible for paying out the winnings, she tells the Sun.
On February 3, she realized that she had won this nice sum of money and went to the post office to collect her winnings.
On site, she is told that she must go to the place where she purchased her ticket, a Tesco supermarket.
If her ticket is validated, she is unable to recover her winnings and she is invited to contact the Allwyn company, the new Lotto operator since February 1st.
This Londoner who is used to playing 60 pounds (Editor's note, 70 euros) per week in lotto tickets learns that her repeated winnings are in the sights of the lottery.
In total, she won nearly 24,000 pounds sterling (Editor's note, 28,000 euros) in cumulative earnings.
After sending photos of the front and back of her winning ticket, operator Allwyn decided to open an investigation targeting her, by sending a former detective to her home on February 28.
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“This has stressed me out so much, I’m angry.
I was treated like some kind of criminal, having someone in my home was intimidating,” she laments to the British tabloid.
“The numbers were from the national draw, so they think I printed the tickets or something?
», asks the grandmother.
“A new complaints process”
“The investigator was a former detective who had worked in this field for 30 years.
He showed me his badge, walked in, took photos of my passport and asked to see my bank statements.
It’s ridiculous,” says Amelia Barnham.
A grotesque situation, visibly even in the eyes of the investigator.
“He was embarrassed and kept apologizing.
He even said:
I am only the messenger
.
»
“This is a new complaints process following the Post Office's decision to no longer pay National Lottery retail prices between 500.01 pounds and 50,000 pounds,” explains a spokesperson for Allwyn, quoted by The Sun.
“Security checks are a key part of the process of validating a winning ticket to ensure that the integrity of the National Lottery is maintained,” he continues.
More than a month after validating her winning ticket, Amelia Barnham has still not received her winnings.
“I will never buy tickets again if I have this kind of difficulty obtaining my winnings.
I advise other players not to buy tickets because I would hate to know that others have to go through the same situation because it is quite disturbing,” she concludes.