A couple from Spain who plotted to deceive a lottery winner of over €11 million (US$12 million) has received a three-year prison sentence from a judge in Valencia. 

The couple, whose identities remain undisclosed by Spanish media apart from the fact that they run a bar in Pedralba, a small town close to Valencia, were also instructed to reimburse the victim for the misappropriated funds. 

The unnamed victim was a frequent patron of the couple’s bar, where she bought her weekly lottery tickets. On March 12, 2017, she purchased three tickets for the Father’s Day draw of Spain’s Lotería Nacional and returned them to the bar owners for safekeeping, a typical habit among the locals. 

Eccentric System 

The victim consistently purchased three tickets, two of which shared the same number every week. 10,123 and 12,396. The third would consistently be a random digit. 

This week she selected 39,813, the identical number chosen on a joint ticket by the bar owners along with one of their friends. Furthermore, another frequent patron at the bar selected the same number and also left their ticket with the owners. 

Typically, Lotería Nacional draws use tickets featuring five-digit numbers ranging from 00000 to 99999. As this model generates only 100K distinct ticket numbers, each number appears multiple times across various "series." Every series possesses a distinct number that essentially functions as a bonus ball. 

To secure the massive jackpot (el gordo), participants must align their ticket number and series number with the drawn balls. Tickets that correspond to the winning number yet do not match the series (bonus) number win lesser prizes. 

Forced into Separation 

The drawing occurred on March 18, 2017, and 39,813 was a winner for all four patrons at the bar. Nonetheless, only the ticket belonging to the victim had the correct series number for the €14.8 million (US$16 million) prize. The remaining two tickets each won €130,000. 

The couple contacted the victim and requested her to meet them at the bar. Upon her arrival, they secured the door to ensure no one else could come in and presented her with the three winning tickets, as stated in court documents. 

Even though they understood she had won the jackpot, they asserted that the tickets had been confused, making it impossible to determine who the genuine winner was. 

The pair maintained that the most just resolution would be to divide the award into four parts. Perplexed, the victim concurred. The couple subsequently reached out to the other two winners, who were oblivious to the scheme, to let them know the prize would be divided. 

The pair had an attorney prepare a legal document detailing the four-way split of the winnings, which was signed by the victim. 

Following the couple's fraud conviction, the judge determined that the victim had been “misled into thinking she was unaware of the winning ticket” and was entitled to receive the entire prize. 

Attorneys representing the victim condemned the duration of the case, which spanned six years, as “notably excessive” given its “limited complexity.”