A SYNDICATE won more than £151,000 on the EuroMillions lottery – by mistake.
The 15 members of a syndicate based at Clifford Thames, a technology company in Chelmsford, returned to work last week to discover one of their lottery tickets had bagged them more than £10,000 each.
Before the Christmas break the group had £150 left in their kitty from small winnings throughout the year, but had never won any substantial amount.
It was only when Andrew Brown, 38, took on responsibility for the final draw of the year that the group's luck changed.
"We had £150 in the pot at the end of the year and we bought some scratch cards which we didn't really win on," said Andrew.
"So then I went down to Sainsbury's to buy £80 worth of lucky dip tickets. It was only when I got back to the office that I realised most of the tickets had been printed for Friday, December 21, instead of Tuesday, December 25."
The next day Andrew went back to Sainsbury's, in Springfield, to speak to the same cashier, Lindsay Duffield, who sold him the incorrect tickets.
"I went back and said, sorry these have been printed off in error and they said there was nothing they could do about it so I thought 'sod it', and bought a few more tickets for the 25th."
It was only when Andrew, a business development manager from Chelmsford, returned to work in the new year and checked all of the tickets that he realised one of them had matched five numbers and one lucky star.
"It's completely random and we should never have had the ticket. But it was quite lucky for two of the members – one left the syndicate the week we won and the other had left the company.
"It was very surreal to look at the screen and think 'why are my numbers actually appearing on the screen?' I was ecstatic."
While Andrew hopes to spend some of his money on a trip to Thailand with his partner, other winners in the group include Scott Brown, 35, a database administrator.
He said: "It was amazing – the first thing I did was tell my wife and she was screaming. It's not a massive amount but it's a very nice amount. We are definitely going to book a holiday this year."
Dean Mulliner, 47, a business analyst, plans to pay off some credit cards and buy some new items for the house.
He said: "I was actually at work when I found out. It was the first day back at work and I had the post-Christmas blues. It perked me up no end."
Dean, who also has three delighted daughters, added: "They think it's a lot more than what it is. They keep asking 'can we do this and can we do that?' "
Andy Howard, 47, also a business analyst, said: "I got on the phone pretty quickly to check the details. My wife was very pleased, as you can imagine. We haven't got anything specific to spend it on but we had a rather enormous holiday to the US last year and the pay off was going to be 2013 but now that's changed."
After informing his colleagues of the good news last Tuesday, Andrew also went to inform Lindsay that her mistake led to their win.
In a statement released by Sainsbury's, customer service staff member Lindsay said: "When Andrew came back into store last Thursday and let me know what had happened, I couldn't believe that he'd won that much. It's a great way for him to start the new year and I wish Andrew and his family a happy future".
But while Andrew and his colleagues have been celebrating their chance success, he is fully aware that the reason they won was not down to him.
"I can't really claim too much credit for it," he said.
