French EuroMillions "winner" spends thousands, only to discover that she was missing one number

FRENCH EUROMILLIONS "WINNER" SPENDS THOUSANDS, ONLY TO DISCOVER THAT SHE WAS MISSING ONE NUMBER

A lottery player from France who thought that she had won a top prize on the EuroMillions lottery spent thousands of euros, but hadn’t won after all.The 46 year old lottery player, whose identity was not disclosed by the media in France, believed that she had won a massive EuroMillions jackpot in early 2014 and subsequently racked up a bill of thousands of euros on clothes, jewellery and perfumes. She wrote cheques for her purchases and believed that everything would be paid off when she received her lottery winnings, but sadly that wasn’t to be, just like when David and Edwina Nylan from England thought they’d won the £35 million UK Lotto jackpot but in actual fact their online purchase had been declined.After more than €4,000 was spent and weeks had passed without a cheque from the lottery, the woman’s family, which is based in the Doubs departement in eastern France, started to worry that something wasn’t quite right, in an opposite turn of events from when William Acosta from Connecticut thought he’d matched three numbers in the Powerball, but had actually matched five. When the woman’s husband got his hands on the EuroMillions ticket and checked it again, he discovered that one of the digits did not match those in the draw, a swift difference from when the UK National Lottery had to ask players to check their tickets again after the wrong numbers were displayed on the website.The woman is now, more than two years on, facing charges of fraud for the cheques that she wrote and subsequently bounced after her celebratory spending spree. In an effort to avoid criminal proceedings, the lottery “winner” tried to convince police that her handbag had been stolen and that it wasn’t her writing the cheques at all, and even burned the bag to try to conceal the evidence.Unfortunately for the woman and her family, she was caught on security cameras in several stores writing the cheques for items that she bought. In a French court this week, the EuroMillions player said that she was “too afraid and ashamed” to pay back the shop owners, who had already contacted her and offered her a deal to make payments in instalments.The court gave her a four month suspended sentence as well as community service and an order to repay her debts in instalments. This woman’s mistake is a far cry from that of many other lottery winners, such as Lee Kirk, who purchased the wrong lottery ticket by accident but won a top prize on the EuroMillions.A lottery win could be there waiting for you anytime, so play online with us at Lottery24.com.