A couple from Lancashire has been left devastated after discovering they missed out on a £35 million lottery jackpot because their bank account had insufficient funds to cover the £2 ticket purchase.
Edwina and David Nylan thought they had won the National Lottery on December 23, 2015, after selecting numbers via the Lottomobile app. However, when they attempted to claim the prize, they were told the transaction had not gone through due to a lack of funds.
Edwina, a grandmother from Fleetwood, said: 'When the numbers came up, it looked like we had all six and had won the jackpot. I called Camelot's customer service, and they said they could see we intended to buy those numbers, but the purchase didn't go through because we only had 60p in our account.'
The couple had tried to top up their account, but the transaction did not register. With the busy holiday season, Edwina had not checked for a confirmation email. Camelot is now investigating the issue with their IT department.
Despite the disappointment, Edwina remains philosophical: 'I am gutted, but what can we do? We've played for years and had our online account for some time, so it's not as if we didn't know what we were doing. I just have to carry on and not get too down.'
A Camelot spokesperson confirmed that the attempted purchases were unsuccessful due to insufficient funds and that the player would have received an error message. They added that only successfully purchased tickets are entered into the draw.
