Sydney newsagent worker allegedly threw out a $3.3 million winning Lotto ticket, court hears

A SYDNEY man believes he was denied a $3 million Lotto fortune by a simple act by a newsagency worker.

A SYDNEY man is taking legal action against NSW Lotteries after he claimed a newsagent worker threw out a “winning” ticket that denied him a $3 million windfall.

David Owen Renshaw is suing NSW Lotteries for the unclaimed $3.3 million prize he believes is rightfully his.

He claims he saw the words “provisional winner” lit up on a lotto terminal but the newsagent attendant threw his “winning” ticket in the bin.

Mr Renshaw’s statement of claim states he gave the Granville Railway Station newsagency worker his ticket and watched him put it through the computer terminal. Moments later the worker told him he wasn’t a winner, and discarded the ticket.

“I believe my ticket was destroyed by an employee of the Granville [newsagent]. I asked him what the words meant — I didn’t know what the words meant until 2015,” Mr Renshaw told a NSW Supreme Court hearing this morning.

The disability pensioner said the employee did not speak English well and he believed he was not able to communicate properly.

“I don’t mean to be rude to the man, but he shouldn’t have been using that machine.”

For the September 23, 1997 draw he purchased a “mixed entry coupon” made up of six games of Systems 7 and of Standard Games all hand marked by him and an Auto Quick Pick entry coupon.

He told the court of the moment he realised he was the “true winner of the OzLotto 188 prize”.

It was Boxing Day 2015 and he was discussing a big jackpot with a friend, who told him they words “provisional winner” must mean something.

They then discovered there was an unclaimed jackpot from the draw and Mr Renshaw “dropped to the ground”.

“I started writing letters to NSW Lotteries straight away,” he said.

Justin Hogan-Doran, who is representing NSW Lotteries, told Justice Michael Walton the case was “doomed to fail” and applied to have it struck out.

Mr Hogan-Doran said a search of all the tickets purchased in the time frame given by Mr Renshaw didn’t match the one by Mr Renshaw had described.

“There is no record of the ticket he claims to have purchased,” he said.

“He has no record of that ticket, we have no record of that ticket, therefore it cannot be produced. [The case] would be doomed to fail.”

He also said Mr Renshaw hadn’t produced a ticket to make his claim for compensation, which was what was required by law.

NSW Lotteries denied its machines used the phrase “provisional winner” — and if it did appear it wouldn’t automatically indicate a first division win, but a prize that was valued over $1000.

Justice Walton reserved his decision.

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