Syndicate 'dissolved' over unpaid stakes

The group say they are entitled to a share

A woman accused of cheating four lottery syndicate members out of a share in a £390,000 win has claimed they owed her £12 in unpaid lottery stakes.

Rosemary Sinclair told Hamilton Sheriff Court that she dissolved the syndicate she was in with four other East Kilbride betting shop employees after she got fed up paying for tickets out of her own pocket.

She said she ended the syndicate the Saturday before she scooped £392,500 on Wednesday, 5 May last year.

Mrs Sinclair is being sued by Marie Finnie, 33, Lesley Hamilton, 25, Connie England, 32, and Lisa Dougan, 23, all from East Kilbride.

Mr Sinclair said he bought the ticket

They were the founder members of a syndicate set up in October 1997.

Mrs Sinclair joined the syndicate at a later date and volunteered to buy the tickets for the group.

She said: "It was always in arrears. I was always owed money. Quite a few times I was having coffee Marie Finnie and I said I was fed up and I was thinking of giving it up.

"The reason for me giving it up was because of the arrears. There was always a problem about getting the money."

She admitted that in the days following the win she had lied to the other four members saying that no ticket had been placed for the Wednesday.

Members 'annoyed'

She said Connie England arrived at her house on Thursday night. Mrs Sinclair said: "She said the numbers had come up. But I said the ticket was not on because the syndicate had finished.

They called me a liar to my face saying that I did put the ticket on for the syndicate

Rosemary Sinclair

"She was quite arrogant about it. Very annoyed about it. By the way she was speaking to me I could see she was really, really annoyed and I wasn't about to tell that I had won it."

Asked about how the other women reacted, Mrs Sinclair said: "They could not believe it either.

"They called me a liar to my face saying that I did put the ticket on for the syndicate. But it wasn't. The syndicate had ended on the Saturday."

She admitted telling the syndicate members that the double ticket had been thrown into the bin. But that had been untrue.

£20m super draw

Earlier, her husband John had told the court he had given his wife the money to buy the ticket.

He said he and his wife agreed to put the syndicate money on for the Saturday draw only, but that they would keep the same syndicate numbers for themselves only for the Wednesday draw.

He said the only reason they had agreed to keep the syndicate alive for the Saturday draw was because it was a £20m super draw.

He told the court that his wife had informed the other syndicate members later that day that the syndicate was dissolved.

Intention to continue

Graham Weatherstone, acting for the four syndicate members, put it to Mr Sinclair that his story was a "tissue of lies".

Mr Weatherstone said: "The natural thing to do was to purchase just one ticket."

Mr Sinclair, who regularly spent £17 per week on lottery tickets, said: "No, no, no, if you listen correctly, we intended to carry on, you don't do that."

The civil action continues.