S African lottery thief convicted

A South African businessman tried to cheat a poor farm worker out of a winning lottery ticket worth five million rand ($490,000; £300,000).

Lazarus Letswalo, 51, was found guilty of theft and fraud at a magistrates court in Johannesburg and could face up to 15 years in jail.

Letswalo was arrested in 2002 when he went to cash the ticket he took from Andrew Phoshoko from Tzaneen, Limpopo.

After the arrest, the lottery operator gave Mr Phoshoko the money.

Magistrate Zacharia Machobane told Letswalo that he had "tried to defraud a poor... illiterate man", reports the Sowetan newspaper.

During the six-year trial, Mr Phoshoko gave evidence that Letswalo had bribed him with ice cream and food before taking the ticket.

Winner's warning

The lottery operator Uthingo became suspicious after noticing that the names on the back of the ticket had been changed.

Humphrey Khoza, the head of Uthingo, said: "There is no way people can cheat the National Lottery."

Mr Phoshoko, who was previously employed in temporary jobs, has used two million rand from his winnings to open a shop and a chicken farm and has invested the rest of the money.

The rightful winner warned other people to "look out. What happened to me should not happen to anyone else".

Letswalo will be sentenced in December.

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