Neighbours go to WAR over £3million lottery syndicate as fuming resident accuses other of ‘cutting him out of winnings’
AN AUSSIE man has sparked a bitter row after taking his neighbours to court over a whopping £3million lottery windfall.
Alan Way sought legal action against Mark Peter Bowling, 76, and Moya Posa, 89, over claims he was cut out of the massive winnings.
Alan, along with Mark and Moya, had founded a lotto syndicate where they placed bets together in hopes of hitting a jackpot one day.
However, he did not receive a penny when the group won the £3million in lotto in August 2022.
The Aussie man, who was unemployed at the time, took both his neighbours to court – and claimed his partners wrongfully threw him out of the gambling ring.
He even provided diary entries which detailed his regular £15 contributions to the lottery group that continued till the time of winning.
However, Mark and Posa argued that Alan had left their group just under a year prior in September 2021.
It soon turned into a major row that locked the three elderly neighbours in a two-year-long feud.
But one of the Supreme Court judges on Friday put an end to the fight after ruling that Alan was not a member of the syndicate on the day of winning.
Justice James Hmelnitsky said he was “persuaded to a relatively high level of certainty that those entries were not made contemporaneously”.
He added: “I am unable to accept Mr Way’s evidence that he contributed to the purchase of the winning ticket.”
The court found that Alan had left the group back in 2021 after a heated argument with Mr Bowling.
An altercation broke out between the two elderly men after Mr Alan was found drinking with a friend called “Young Barry” in his apartment in 2021 amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
He also stopped contributing to the syndicate after the fight, the court said.
The court heard that in October 2022, Mark later transferred £150,200 to Alan as a “gift”.
But Alan, who was not aware of the winning, later learned from another resident about the massive jackpot.
He then got involved in a “significant altercation” with Mark, and took the case to the court.
It comes after an Aussie grandma, who won £5 million in the lottery, almost lost the fortune because she “thought the missed calls were a scam.”
The unnamed woman, hailing from small town Sarina, near Mackay in Queensland was asleep when lottery officials called her.
She woke up on July 12 to multiple missed calls from telling her she’d scooped up the entire $10 million AUD jackpot in the previous night’s Powerball Draw 1469.
The nan initially dismissed the calls as coming from dodgy callers but they left a voicemail confirming her newfound millionaire status.
Meanwhile, an Aussie widower dealt an unexpected blow after winning £32,000 in the lottery.
Frank Kemmler, 70, from Adelaide, South Australia couldn’t believe his luck when he learned of his massive win.
The pensioner immediately phoned his family and told them to pack their bags for a holiday.
But his elation turned to dread when he visited his local Centrelink to complete some paperwork regarding his disability support pension.
There, Mr Kemmler said, he was informed his lottery win was considered a form of income as it would be paid to him in monthly instalments, so he was no longer eligible to receive his pension.