Ownership of a disputed winning €1.269 million winning Lotto ticket has been settled, the High Court was told today.
Fifteen members of a 16-man syndicate had claimed the 16th member had disappeared with the winning ticket and they subsequently heard his partner was claiming to have won the Lotto.
The settlement terms were not announced in court yesterday but it is understood that each of the 15 plaintiffs who brought the action are to get €79,300 while the remaining share will go to the 16th member of the syndicate, Mr Noel Kelly, and his partner, Michelle Kelly.
The proceedings began when 15 members of a syndicate of 16 building workers got a temporary injunction preventing the National Lottery paying out on foot of a ticket which won on January 18th last.
When the case first came before the court, solicitor Mr Brendan Toale said in an affidavit that two of the 15 members had advised him that on Saturday January 18th, the syndicate collected €32 which was given to the 16th member, Mr Noel Kelly - understood to have an address in north Dublin - to buy Lottery tickets for the syndicate.
On the Monday, Mr Kelly indicated to members of the syndicate it had been unsuccessful. He produced a number of tickets and told syndicate members present they had won nothing.
He tore up the tickets and threw them into a skip on the site. An hour later, it became known that Mr Kelly’s partner was claiming to have won the Lottery.
The solicitor said he was instructed Mr Kelly told one syndicate member that Mr Kelly had bought his partner’s ticket about an hour after purchasing the syndicate’s ticket.
Members of the syndicate became suspicious. They went back to the skip and collected the pieces of the tickets and furnished them to Mr Toale. Three of the four tickets were Quick Pick Lotto tickets priced at €7.60.
The fourth ticket was a "Lotto Plus" ticket priced at €5. Mr Kelly’s instructions from the syndicate were to spend the €32 from the syndicate on Lottery tickets.
Mr Toale said he was informed by the National Lottery the three Lotto tickets were all bought in The Gem newsagents, Glasnevin. He was advised by the Lottery that the three tickets were purchased at 10.30.54; 10.31.48 and 10.31.13 on the Saturday morning and that the winning ticket was bought at 10.32.13 at The Gem.
The solicitor said he was informed the remaining ticket exhibited, a Lotto Plus ticket valued at €5, was bought in Fairview but he could not find out at what time.
In the circumstances and based on his instructions, Mr Toale said it appeared that Mr Kelly, acting for the syndicate, went to The Gem and bought four Lotto Quick Pick tickets valued at €7.60 each, one of which was the winning ticket.
The judge said he was delighted to hear the matter had been resolved and remarked the case had sounded like a "very interesting piece" of litigation.
The court said the total sum could now to be paid into a joint account of solicitors for both sides.