National Lottery fined for handing out £2.5m to someone with an allegedly fraudulent ticket

National Lottery operator Camelot have had to fork out £3m after being fined by a gambling watchdog for paying out a £2.5m prize claim involving what is alleged to have been a deliberately damaged ticket.

The fine from the Gambling Commission relates to an incident in 2009 which went undiscovered for six years. In 2015, police and the regulator were both alerted to it. The Telegraph report that a 51-year-old man from Kings Langley had claimed the winnings using a damaged ticket. Only arrested last October and later released without charge, the police say they will look into the case again if further evidence emerges. The man has not repaid any of the money to Camelot, who have said they are unable to confirm the details of what happened in the incident but have indicated that many of the people involved have since left the company. "We accept that, at the time, there were some weaknesses in some of the specific controls relevant to this incident and we're very sorry for that," said Camelot chief executive Andy Duncan. Hertfordshire Police confirmed that the constabulary's specialist Cyber and Financial Investigation Unit had looked into the incident, and arrested a man on suspicion of fraud by false representation. "Following a thorough investigation the man was released with no further action to be taken against him," they said.