A husband and wife from Co Kildare have won an interim court order to stop the pay-out of half last Saturday's Lotto jackpot, claiming they had the winning numbers but were given the wrong ticket by mistake.
The couple, George and Patricia Murray from Naas, say they presented the winning combination on a pre-marked slip at a Lotto agent's in Naas on Saturday evening, using numbers drawn from family birthdays.
Two tickets - one in Naas and the other in Ennis, Co Clare - shared the £3.3 million jackpot for the numbers 2, 6, 9, 16, 18, and 30. But the Murrays say that when they saw details of the draw on Sunday, they checked to find that instead of the winning ticket, they had been given a quick-pick, with different numbers, by mistake.
Part of their case is that only they, the National Lottery and the holder of the winning Naas ticket can identify the numbers on the ticket's other lines. They applied for the interim order in the High Court early yesterday, preventing payment to anyone else of what they claim is their £1.65 million prize. The case will be considered further on Friday.
The National Lottery accepts that a winning ticket was sold by the Lotto agency at the centre of the row - the Gem, Poplar Square, Naas - but a spokeswoman said the onus was on customers to check the tickets issued. Nobody has claimed either share of the jackpot, she added, and the holders of the winning Naas ticket have yet to come forward.
The Gem has already sold one jackpot winner and stands to receive half the £7,500 agent's bonus for its latest success. But a spokeswoman said yesterday she didn't know "the finer details" about the case and had "no comment". She did not know the Murrays personally but they were "supposed to live close by", she added. She also confirmed the shop had sold a jackpot ticket "about three years ago" for "close to a million".
A construction worker currently on disability benefit, Mr Murray says he bought a ticket at about 4.45 p.m. on Saturday.
Injunction for couple: page 4