Lottery Syndicates Gone Wrong

The Worst Case Of Morning Sickness?

Lottery stories are often full of incredible tales of luck, unfortunately for Louisa Whitby, her story is one of astonishing bad luck.

Whitby, who worked at a Liverpool-based recruitment company, was part of a long-running syndicate made up of herself, and ten fellow colleagues. The eleven were the entire workforce of the Liverpool branch of the company.

Louisa, who was expecting her first child, missed work on the day syndicate payments were to be made, and inadvertently missed out on $4 million, when her fellow syndicate members banked $47 million on the UK Lotto.

Returning to work Louisa found a desolate office, as her 10 fellow syndicate members had dumped their jobs and headed off to spend their winnings. Naturally devastated after being unceremoniously informed she wouldn't be seeing a penny of the group's winnings.

An employee of the company, based in a different office, tweeted: 'In recruitment hell....all our staff in Liverpool office have left after winning lottery.' Spare a moment if you will, for those left behind in the wake of a lottery win!

Whitby told the media, "‘That money will never buy them happiness. I considered them my friends, but I can never speak to them again."

Well, I for one can't blame her, I'd be a bit miffed too.

The anonymous ten have not made a comment on the situation, Louisa Whitby is currently taking legal action.

Lotto Nepotism

We're all used to someone else taking credit for something we've done, but when you're kicked out of a syndicate and replaced with the boss's son, it really takes the biscuit.

Some things are so ridiculous that it's hard to believe they're true, unfortunately for Brendon King, it is.

Brendon was part of a 14-member syndicate at his office, who scooped 40 million Australian dollars (£23.6 million) earlier this year. Much to his surprise, and indeed indignation, Brendon found himself mysteriously removed from the group and replaced by the son of his boss, who doesn't even work at the company.

Nothing about that situation sounds suspicious, right?

Lottery officials have refused to pay out the winnings, which would see the members take home close to 3 million each, until the dispute has been resolved.

The court case rumbles on…

A Likely Story

When a member of your lotto syndicate vanishes the day after a lotto draw you might begin to suspect something is up. It's only when your absent co-worker has lottery officials sending him congratulatory bottles of champagne that the penny drops.

Quite a lot of pennies in fact, because Gary Baron had just legged it with 16 million Australian dollars (approximately £9.4 million), most of which belonged to his fellow syndicate members.

Two of the syndicate confronted him at his home, complete with a brand new BMW outside, where Baron insisted his winners were from a ticket he had purchased separately from the group.

Unsurprisingly, his fellow syndicate didn't buy his story, and the fact Baron was busy buying himself luxury goods only made the situation worse.

Following the big win, an unknown winner who was rumoured to be Gary Baron, told the press: "I'm still in disbelief... I don't need that amount of money, it's too much for me."

A quote that seems a little contradictory, considering how events transpired. Luckily for Gary he will have his fellow syndicate members to help him with the winnings, after the parties agreed an out of court settlement.

Driven to Distraction

Up next in our tales of deceitful co-workers is another heart-warming tale from the UK, set in the DVLA offices in Swansea.

By this point in the article you can probably predict what happens, but just in case…. A 16 strong team won big on the lottery, but just as the champagne corks were popping, things started to get nasty.

A squabble erupted within the group, when three of the potential winners were accused of not coughing up for that week's tickets.

An exasperated insider told the UK press: "It's like something out of a television show, I can't believe the way they are acting."

Last we heard they were going to organise a vote to see whether the three in doubt would be given their winnings anyway.

Each member would "only" take away £62,000 from the win, plus a further £14,000 each if the other three are excluded – not exactly retirement money – it could certainly lead to some frosty chats over the coffee machine if they aren't given their winnings.  

Do Syndicates Right

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