The winning lottery syndicate from Morrison Utility Services in Chatham

by Keith Hunt

A devious shop assistant is facing sentence after he was today found guilty of trying to con a lottery syndicate out of a payout of almost £80,000.

Imran Pervais was accused of "deliberately and dishonestly" misleading the ticket holders by telling them they had only won £10 while working at his father's Gravesend shop.

The prosecution said the logical conclusion was the 26-year-old former debt collector intended to claim the £79,887 win for himself.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Callum Crosier, organiser of the 28-member syndicate at Morrisons Utility Services in Chatham, went intoMoores Convenience Store on May 18 last year and asked for four tickets to be checked.

"i don't need money. i don't have plenty, but i have money..." – shop worker imran pervais

One was a £10 winner. When another ticket produced a pink slip, Mr Crosier asked if it was "another tenner" and Pervais indicated it was.

Mr Crosier left the shop in Mackenzie Way and, after checking the numbers, he realised the syndicate had won more - believing it was £1,000.

He went back and Pervais and other staff agreed to look for the ticket. Meanwhile, Mr Crosier discovered the win for five numbers and the bonus ball was much bigger.

He returned to the shop and refused to leave until the ticket was found. Bin bags were searched, but when the base of the counter was swept the ticket was found rolled up in a ball.

Camelot launched an investigation and Pervais was arrested. The money was paid out to the syndicate.

Pervais, of Milton Road, Gravesend, denied in evidence he intended to claim the big win himself and claimed he simply made a mistake.

"I didn't have the intention of nicking the money," he said. "I don't need money. I don't have plenty, but I have money."

The winning ticket was bought at Moores Convenience Store

Pervais claimed in evidence he did not remember serving Mr Crosier when he took the tickets into the shop to be checked, but accepted the customer's assertion it was him.

"I don't remember any of it," he said.

He also denied checking the ticket for a second time. "It could have been done by anybody," he continued. The Camelot investigator, he said, forced him to admit he carried out both checks.

Pervais, who was a team leader at the Olympics at the time, said of Mr Crosier: "When he told me it was a much bigger win, I was panicking."

He did not go through the bin bags but left it to his brothers, explaining: "If you are the unfortunate one to find it, it can be pinned on you basically.

"I wasn't present when the ticket was found. I wasn't the one who put it down the boards."

Tom Dunn, defending, asked: "Did you, when that prize ticket was scanned, decide in a blink of an eye you were going to keep the proceeds?"

Pervais replied: "No. The reason is I knew he was in a syndicate. It is not exactly a lucky dip. Somebody has chosen those numbers. They know they are their numbers."

He denied fraud by misrepresentation, but was found guilty in a unanimous verdict by a jury of eight women and four men.

Adjourning for reports until after April 30 and granting unconditional bail, Judge David Griffith-Jones QC said he was not giving any indication of what the likely sentence would be.

"It seems to me this is a matter that crosses the custody threshold," he added.