A man from London has discovered his stolen bank card was used to purchase a £4million winning lottery scratchcard in 2019, without his knowledge until recently.
Joshua Addyman, 29, was the unwitting owner of the card used by thieves dubbed the 'Blotto Louts' to buy the winning ticket at a London Londis.
Jon-Ross Watson and Mark Goodram from Bolton exploited Addyman's stolen card details and purchased the scratchcard.
Addyman told The Sun he had "absolutely no idea" he was connected to the lottery scandal.
The winner had 'absolutely no idea' he was connected to the scandal
PA"I've had my card stolen before, I was like 'why is this such a big deal?' No one ever explained it to me," said Addyman, who was baffled by the police interest in what he thought was a routine card theft.
He added: "If it was about people winning £4million on my card, I would have been interested to see what happens to these people."
Addyman expressed frustration at being kept in the dark about the true significance of his stolen card.
"I definitely would have been more cooperative if they told me what was happening. All they sounded like was that my card got stolen, and they were going way over the top with it," he explained.
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Greater Manchester Police (GMP) insisted that Addyman travel to Manchester for court proceedings without explaining why.
He recalled: "They kept calling me, they even sent police to my house... but I was like 'I'm not going to Manchester to say I don't know what's going on, I don't know anything. This was right at the peak of Covid, I didn't want to go to a courtroom full of people just for my card getting stolen.
"At the end of 2020, they're asking me to go to court, and even at this point, I still had no idea. I even asked them, 'Hi, what is this for?' And they just ignored it."
Addyman explained that ''no one ever told [him] it was because someone won £4million'
PAA spokesman for GMP previously stated: "We conducted a full investigation into a case of fraud by false misrepresentation, which resulted in two men receiving custodial sentences.
"We provided the victim with appropriate updates and information that protected the integrity of the investigation and helped ensure the offenders were brought to justice."
GMP Detective Constable Michelle Wilkinson, of the Complex Fraud Team, explained that "this was quite an extraordinary case" as the thieves' chances of collecting this scratchcard were "one in four million".
She added: "Unfortunately for them, they had knowingly bought this ticket through fraudulent means. While the massive winnings were never put in the wrong hands and no one came to any harm, there is no doubt in my mind that these men would have gladly accepted this money without any remorse for their illicit ways of obtaining it."
