Lottery ‘winner’ conman who forged £2.5million jackpot ticket could now lose his £700,000 house after court case defeat
A LOTTO conman who forged a jackpot ticket could now lose his £700,000 home after losing a court battle.
Edward Putman, now 56, was found guilty in October 2019 of using a fake winning ticket to claim a £2.5m jackpot in 2009.
And now he could lose his home – as forensic accounts are looking to flog his possessions to settle his debts.
In January last year he was ordered to pay back almost £940,000 within three months.
But over a year on he has only repaid £100,000 – so prosecutors have been granted an enforcement receiver order at St Albans Crown Court.
It means they can “take possession of assets, sell them and pay money to the courts”.
A source told The Mirror: “Putman had the chance to settle up but he’s too greedy – now it’s out of his hands.
“The authorities are desperate to get the cash back, they won’t stand by and let him squirrel away the cash.
“Putman played the coward and tried to fight the application but prosecutors won.”
During his original court case jurors heard Putman had conspired with Lottery insider Giles Knibbs, who worked in Camelot’s security department, to present a fake ticket.
The actual winning ticket, which was never claimed, was bought at a Co-op store in Worcester on March 11, 2009. It had the winning numbers 6, 9, 20, 21 and 34.
On August 28 that year, just before the 180-day claim deadline, Putman called Camelot to say he’d found the winning ticket under the seat of his van.
It was missing its bottom part, which contained unique numbers. However, Camelot accepted the forgery as genuine – even though it was missing a barcode.
The fraud began to unravel on October 5 2015 when Mr Knibbs, 38, committed suicide at Ivinghoe Beacon in Bucks.
He had confessed to friends that he and Putman had “conned” the Lottery.