Lotto winner pays tribute to honesty of Centra worker

THE LUCKY Lotto winner who left his ticket in the shop where he bought it has collected his €350,000 prize.

Dermot Finglas from Drogheda, Co Louth, was tracked down by Tom Heavey, who works in the McDonnell’s Centra store in the town.

Speaking to his local radio station LMFM, Mr Finglas paid tribute to Mr Heavey. Mr Heavey marked the forgotten ticket as “paid for” and put it away for safekeeping until Mr Finglas was identified on CCTV footage.

“If people just aspire to be somebody even remotely like Tom, lifting spirits. He is richer than anybody I can imagine,” Mr Finglas said. “At the end of the day it gives all of us a bit of hope about all this job situation in this country, people feeling down losing their jobs, and things like this.”

Mr Finglas said he was going to “probably hit the Canary Islands with a couple of friends” with his winnings.

“Sitting around here thinking about it isn’t going to help me. I’m going to need to go somewhere where nobody knows my name to think about it.”

He said friends in Chicago had sent him messages saying they had read the story in their local newspapers.

Meanwhile, Mr Heavey revealed people had written to him to compliment him on his honesty. “Another man sent me a Quick Pick ticket,” he said.

He insisted he had no regrets.

“I never had any regrets. The ticket wasn’t mine. It was good news in a sea of bad news,” he said.

Mr Heavey said he was pleased Mr Finglas had collected his winnings yesterday, after being told on Tuesday that a number of routine inquiries would have to be made.