Bizarre lottery ‘scam’ saw shopkeeper ‘launch a FAKE hunt for owner of winning ticket – in bid to keep £4m for himself’

A SPANISH shopkeeper allegedly launched a fake hunt to find the owner of a winning lottery ticket in a bid to claim the cash himself. Police claim Manuel Reija Gonzalez staged an elaborate plot with his lotto official brother to try and bag the £4.05million prize money. Euro NewsManuel Reija Gonzalez has been accused of trying to defraud the rightful winner[/caption] Euro NewsHe has now been charged after an extensive investigation into the lotto scam[/caption] The ticket seller in the city of A Coruna was hailed as a local hero in June 2012 after launching a public appeal to find the customer who bought it from him. He told local news that he was on a mission to reunite the ticket with the rightful owner rather than keeping the windfall for himself. Manuel claimed that he had miraculously found the lotto slip during a clear out, but cops believe he tricked the buyer into handing it over. He had told reporters over a decade ago that he “had to sit down” and “almost broke his chair” after seeing the seven-figure sum pop up on the screen. But investigators have accused him of telling the unsuspecting Spainard that the £4million ticket was worth little over a euro. The shopkeeper then allegedly enlisted the help of his brother, who worked for the national lottery, to assist him in cashing in the ticket for himself, the Guardian reports. It is claimed that Manuel tried to scoop the jackpot on five separate occasions, but each attempt was refused by lottery authorities. Officials had also raised suspicions about the shopkeeper’s bizarre versions of events and subsequently launched an investigation. After publicising the official search for the winner, a whopping 317 people from across Spain came forward to claim the ticket as theirs. But all of the claims were proved to be false. A judge then ordered police to take over the peculiar probe, as well as investigating Manuel for possible fraud. He has since been charged with the crime, while his brother was also slapped with money laundering charges. Both siblings, who deny the charges, face up to six years behind bars. Behind the scenes, cops had made significant progress in their search for the legitimate winner. Officers found that a lotto player in A Coruna had been using the same combination of numbers for a lengthy period of time. Tickets with the same digits were also purchased in Mallorca and on the Costa Del Sol, giving police a substantial lead. Chief Inspector José Manuel López said: “We reached the conclusion that this was someone with plenty of free time who took the Christmas and Easter holidays somewhere warm, probably a pensioner.” Cops then called on the expertise of Imserso, a branch of the Spanish government which organises holidays for elderly people. They were then able to track down a woman whose movements corresponded with the ticket sales. It turned out to be the buyer’s wife, who explained that her husband had passed away in 2014. Prosecutors allege that Manuel duped him by only awarding him a small prize when he was entitled to millions. They called for the prize money to be given to the widow and the daughter of the man who bought the lucky ticket. The officers have been awarded the police merit medal for their investigation into establishing the identity of the ticket holder.