Couple ditch plan to raffle off coffee shop

A couple who put up their historic coffee shop in Wolverhampton city centre as a raffle prize today revealed they had abandoned the competition amid concerns by the Gambling Commission that it was an illegal lottery.

Mike and Alexandra Perkins, who run Madame Clarke's in King Street, were contacted by the commission's UK regulators who queried whether their novel idea to win the £100,000 business was a genuine competition.

More than 4,000 raffle tickets had been sold, including 2,000 in the first 10 days of the move being announced, which meant the Perkins were well on their way to achieving their 5,500 target ahead of the August draw.

The Bilston couple, who also have a coffee shop in Telford, has now informed all those who had snapped up the £15-a-head tickets their money will be refunded. The Gambling Commission had initially approved the online raffle only to perform a u-turn because the question the competition posed was too easy to research.

Mike Perkins said: "We have spent the last few weeks trying to resolve the issue but to be honest, it is like hitting your head against a wall so we decided to pull the competition.

"In our view the UK has now become a nanny state. Everything is easy to research on the internet these days. This is a government department who do not seem to know what they are doing."

The Grade II-listed cafe was being offered complete with £70,000-plus gross annual profit, six staff and the company car.

It was put up for sale two months ago but the Perkins decided they stood a better chance of raising the cash by launching the competition. They said the current slump in the property market prompted them to give the raffle idea a go.