Express & Star

'Could it be you?': Lotto bosses search for £7.4m ticket winner from Wolverhampton

“It could be you,” say Lottery chiefs who have launched a search for the elusive winner of almost £7.5 million who has not yet claimed their amazing prize.

Published
Last updated
Wolves legend Steve Bull with Andy Cater, of the National Lottery

Representatives of National Lottery operator Camelot paid a visit to the city’s Molineux Stadium in a desperate bid to urge Wolverhampton residents to dig out their tickets and check it if is them who has won the life-changing prize.

The holder of the winning ticket worth an eye-watering £7,440,150 bought it from an undisclosed location in the Wolverhampton postcode area, picking out all six main numbers in the Lotto draw on June 18. The lucky numbers on that date were 11, 14, 36, 39, 42, 59 and the Bonus Ball was 21.

Camelot’s senior winners’ advisor at The National Lottery Andy Carter says bosses were eager to find the person who has so far failed to come forward to claim the cash.

If someone thinks they are the winner, but cannot find the ticket they should contact Camelot within 30 days of the draw, meaning that they have another two weeks to inform the operator of where the ticket was purchased and the date.

Mr Carter explains: “Sometimes people put it in the glove compartment, at the bottom of a bag or in the bottom of the drawer and they forget it’s there. Other people hide their tickets in places to remember it’s there. There was a one man who kept his ticket at the bottom of his snake tank. So the ticket was in an envelope, in a box that was under a rock and the snake was guarding it.

"Other people are more sentimental and put it in the back of a photo frame of a loved one and to them it almost feels like the that person is looking after the ticket for them.

“People keep them in dictionaries under L for ‘lucky’ or W for ‘winner’. We had other people who want to keep ticket with them the whole time. We’re looking today for someone who hasn’t claimed the money. They probably don’t even know they’ve won. So this is really sort of encouraging people to check the safe places in your house. We all tend to hide things among our precious things, such as, inside passports, with driving licences.

“We’re asking them really to check absolutely everywhere. It’s £7.4m so make the claim. We’ve had people leaving it right up until at the last 179th day. We once had a man who found the ticket the day before the deadline underneath his bed when he was tidying up. And oh, my goodness when he when told his mom, she replied, ‘you’ve always been untidy and now you’re grown up you still have an untidy bedroom’.”

Jackpot winners have just under 180 days to come forward. The Wolverhampton winner has until December 15 to claim.

Wolves legend and former England player Steve Bull joined forces with the lottery team at Molineux to appeal to the winner and said: “I wish it was me, but it wasn’t. It is a life-changing amount of money.

There is a person out there who has won I would appeal to you to try to find the ticket. It will change your life.”

Mr Carter added: “We’re desperate to find Wolverhampton’s mystery Lotto jackpot ticket-holder and unite them with their winnings and we’re urging everyone to try checking in the pockets of clothing, in wallets, bags, down the back of the sofa and anywhere a missing ticket could be hiding.”