A dispute over the ownership of a €1.269 million Lotto winning ticket has been settled, the High Court was told yesterday.
Fifteen members of a 16-man syndicate had claimed the 16th member had disappeared with the winning ticket and they subsequently heard his partner was claiming to have won the Lotto.
The settlement terms were not announced in court but it was learned there is to be a 16-way split of the winning amount, giving 16 separate sums of €79,300.
The proceedings began when 15 members of a syndicate of 16 construction workers got a temporary injunction preventing the National Lottery paying out on a ticket which won €1,269,738 on January 18th.
It is understood that each of the 15 plaintiffs who brought the action is to get €79,300 while the remaining share will go to the 16th member of the syndicate, Mr Noel Kelly, and his partner, Ms Michelle Kelly.
The members of the syndicate come from six different counties and are engaged by sub-contractors working on an extension to the premises of Enterprise Ireland in Glasnevin, Dublin.
When the case first came before the court, a solicitor, Mr Brendan Toale, said in an affidavit that two of the 15 members had advised him that on Saturday, January 18th, the syndicate collected €32, which was given to the 16th member, Mr Kelly, understood to have an address in north Dublin, to buy lottery tickets for the syndicate.
On the following Monday Mr Kelly indicated to the syndicate that it had been unsuccessful. He produced a number of tickets and told them they had won nothing. He then tore up the tickets and threw them into a skip on the site.
An hour later it became known that Mr Kelly's partner was claiming to have won the lottery. The solicitor said he was instructed that Mr Kelly told one syndicate member that he had bought his partner's ticket about an hour after purchasing the syndicate's ticket.
Members of the syndicate became suspicious. They went back to the skip and collected the pieces of the tickets and furnished them to Mr Toale.
Three of the four tickets were Quick Pick Lotto tickets priced at €7.60. The fourth ticket was a Lotto Plus ticket priced at €5. Mr Kelly's instructions from the syndicate were to spend the €32 from the syndicate on lottery tickets.
Mr Derek Murphy, one of the 15 plaintiffs, said on affidavit that he told Mr Kelly he believed the winning ticket was bought by Mr Kelly on behalf of the syndicate and that the winnings belonged to its 16 members. He said Mr Kelly agreed there had been a mix-up and indicated that "his head was all over the place".
Yesterday Mr Justice O'Higgins was told the proceedings had been settled and could be struck out.