Multi-million pound scratch-card fraudsters from Bolton jailed

Two men who attempted to claim a £4million jackpot from a scratch-card they had fraudulently obtained in London in 2019 have been jailed for 18 months each.

Mark Goodram, 38, and John Watson, 34 - both from Bolton - were in the Clapham area of the capital on Easter Monday when they used the details of a debit card of a person they did not know to buy a number of scratch-cards at a Waitrose store.

Watson distracted a shop worker into conversation while Goodram keyed into the card reader the details of the stolen debit card to make a purchase of over £70 - including five National Lottery scratch-cards.

The men then went to another store on Clapham High Street where they proceeded to scratch the cards and found they had firstly won £10 on one card and then £4million on a second card.

CCTV from the Londis store shows the pair celebrating their apparent jackpot success despite knowing they had obtained the winning ticket through false representation using bank details they did not have permission to use.

Watson then called Camelot UK but never gave his name as he went to claim the winnings on behalf of his 'friend' Goodram.

However, suspicions soon arose when Goodram said he couldn’t receive the winnings via bank transfer as he didn’t have a bank account - despite buying the scratch-card with a debit card from an account.

Once it was established that the account used by Goodram was that of another man unknown to the pair, Camelot referred the investigation to police and our Complex Fraud Team at Nexus House were able to charged and prove that both men were guilty of three counts of fraud by false misrepresentation.

Goodram, of no fixed abode, and Watson, of Nuttall Avenue, Little Lever, were both sentenced on Tuesday 14 December to 18 months in jail.

Detective Constable Michelle Wilkinson, of our Complex Fraud Team, said: "This was quite an extraordinary case as Goodram and Watson's chances of claiming this scratch-card were one in four million; but unfortunately for them, they had knowingly bought this ticket through fraudulent means.

"While the massive winnings were never put in the wrong hands and no one came to any harm, there is no doubt in my mind that these men would have gladly accepted this money without any remorse for their illicit ways of obtaining it.

"The vigilance of staff at Camelot has to be commended, and the subsequent investigation by our team at the Complex Fraud Team has ensured that these two men are rightly behind bars and can learn to accept how their selfish and unscrupulous actions were far from acceptable."