UK couple retrieves winning lottery ticket from roadside bin

Team Udayavani, Jan 3, 2017, 1:38 PM IST

London: A couple in the UK narrowly avoided missing out on a New Year windfall after retrieving a winning lottery ticket worth 66,000 pounds thrown into a roadside dustbin. Joanne Joynson, 37, is now planning to wed her fiance of 15 years with that money.

She said: “First thing I did when I saw Dyllan was to remind him he had proposed 15 years ago and that we could now afford to get married. I have always wanted to get married but we’ve never had the money to do it until now.” Joynson from Merseyside went to her local Betfred shop on New Year’s Eve and was amazed to discover the losing 3 pounds Spanish Lottery ticket she had thrown away three days earlier was in fact a winner.

Her losing ticket proved a winner as part of a Betfred 10-week cash giveaway promotion where all the losing lottery tickets from the 11 lotto games go into a weekly draw meaning the tens of thousands of people who missed out are in with a chance of picking up 1,000 or 5,000 consolation prizes. But not all the cash prizes were claimed – and the prize fund rolled over into the 66,000 pounds won by Joynson on December 31, Daily Morror reported.

She raced the short distance home to rummage through the wheelie bin and 15 minutes later was back at the bookies clutching the ticket. Joynson, mother-of-two, said: “It wasn’t so bad because the bin men had been to take away the Christmas rubbish so there was only one plastic bag in there so I found it quickly enough”. She added: “I go in Betfreds every day and have a go on the Spanish or Irish lotteries, the 49s or the goals galore coupon. I have won bits before but never ever anything like this