Belfast lottery winners thank a lucky mistake

A syndicate of care workers from a north Belfast community centre were celebrating on Thursday after winning nearly £20,000 in The National lottery draw held last weekend after having mistakenly filled in the wrong numbers.

The six winners, all care workers at the Corner House Family Centre in Duncairn Gardens, matched five numbers plus the bonus ball to win £19,521 in the draw on Saturday 4 August 2001.

Syndicate leader Paul Collins, (38), was counting his lucky stars on Sunday Morning, when he realised he accidentally filled in the wrong numbers on one line. To his surprise and relief, these numbers were the winning ones.

Mr Collins said: “It wasn’t until I’d checked Teletext on Sunday morning that I realised that we’d won. I asked my wife to double check the numbers before I rang my colleagues to let them know the fantastic news. The syndicate did not believe me when I told them we’d won, as they had all checked their numbers against the numbers we normally play. We were all jumping for joy.”

The syndicate have not yet decided how they will be spending the money, although they threw a champagne party on Thursday with their work colleagues, friends and family.

This is the second time The Corner House Family Centre have had a helping hand from The National Lottery, having recently received a Lottery grant this year. (AMcE)