Lottery fraud charge for Canadian

Ontario's lottery has been hit by a number of scandals

A Toronto shopkeeper has been charged with fraudulently claiming a C$5.7m (£2.8m) lottery prize which four of his customers had won.

Police allege that Hafiz Malik had been asked by the actual winners to validate their tickets, but had told them they had not won and stolen their tickets.

Seven months later, he claimed their prize for himself, police say.

Police are investigating a number of other potentially fraudulent Canadian lottery wins by retailers.

Assets seized

The incident took place in 2004, but the rightful winners did not realise they had been successful until they rechecked their tickets this summer.

"Four rightful owners were deprived of a lottery win that would have changed their lives," Ontario Provincial Police Chief Superintendent Bob Goodall told reporters.

Mr Malik has been charged with two counts of fraud and one count of theft, and police have seized approximately C$5m of his assets, including his house and luxury vehicles.

The four genuine winners will now receive their shares of the prize money, plus C$900,000 (£450,000) in interest, a lottery spokeswoman said.

This incident follows a number of other Canadian lottery scandals.

In October 2006 it emerged that an 82-year-old Ontario man had been denied C$249,000 (£124,500) when a lottery retailer falsely claimed his winnings.

And a five-month-long investigation into British Columbia's provincial lottery found that one lottery insider had won 11 times in five years, while another had won C$10,000 (£5,000) a year for four years.

Lottery organisers across Canada are now stepping up their security systems in light of the problems.