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Two Parisian tobacconists from the Rue des Entrepreneurs admitted yesterday that they had taken their street name too literally. They, and a friend, cheated a customer out of a Euro 35.5 million ($62 million) win on the Euro Millions lottery last month.
The shopkeepers told the trusting customer, a 30-year-old accountant, his tickets were all losers. In fact, two of them, with exactly the same permutation of numbers, had won the weekly jackpot. The tobacconists pretended to throw away the tickets. A few days later, they asked an unemployed friend to pose as the "winner" in return for a Euro 1.5 million cut.
He successfully claimed the prize but his bank grew suspicious when he transferred most of the money to another account.
The French national lottery company, La Francaise des Jeux, asked for an investigation by the French internal security service, the Renseignements Generaux, which also polices gaming.
The Renseignements Generaux studied the pattern of Euro Millions tickets bought at the Tabac in the Rue des Entrepreneurs in the 15th arrondissement. They discovered that the winning numbers had been played regularly before the big win on May 11 - and afterwards. This suggested the winner was not aware that his regular line had hit the jackpot.
The shopkeepers, named only as Reginald and Brigitte C, aged 57, were arrested earlier this week. So was their friend. All three initially denied the scam but confessed yesterday. The jackpot winner, who has asked for no publicity, had no idea that he was a millionaire until police called at his address. He will received his winnings as soon as they have been released by the bank and the judicial authorities.
- Independent
