An unclaimed lottery ticket worth £1 million is held by someone in the East Midlands. Lotto chiefs said there are a number of people who are yet to come forward and claim the prize from January.
Lottery winners have a limited time to claim their prize before it is too late, with £8million of jackpots still unclaimed, according to one expert. National Lottery winners' advisor, Andy Carter, told The Sun that Brits have only six months to claim their cash.
Leicestershire Live reports that a draw in January created 24 new millionaires but five people still have not claimed their prize. And while those who have lost tickets might think that they have lost any chance they had, Andy says players should not worry.
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"We had a draw in January that produced 24 millionaires - there's five unclaimed prizes that we're still searching for people for," he told the Sun. "These are retail prizes that we published the areas for.
"You can see them on our website." According to The National Lottery website, the five £1million unclaimed prizes this January were bought in Breckland in Norfolk, North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, Dudley in the West Midlands, Doncaster in South Yorkshire and in Hinckley and Bosworth in Leicestershire.
Any prizes not claimed after 180 days will go to National Lottery projects across the UK. That means anyone who thinks they have lost their ticket should call National Lottery as soon as possible.
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Andy told The Sun; "There's a big draw on Friday with ten prizes of £1million, so it's an apt time to ensure that people know what to do if they lose their tickets. If people buy a ticket from a shop and they've lost it - but they've checked the numbers and think it's their prize - they can contact us and let us know.
"But what's really important is they need to contact us within 30 days of the draw. There are important draws coming up, but if you lose your ticket you can let us know within 30 days." And it helps to know when and where the ticket was bought so lotto staff can find out what chosen numbers were.
"They need to provide as much information as they can", Andy added. Where did you buy the ticket? When did you buy it? Did you buy other things at the same time?
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"As much information as they can so that we can look into that. There will be a delay on it, we've made people wait until the end of the claim period - so six months.
But what's really important is they let us know within 30 days." But he said the best way to avoid losing your ticket is simple to buy them online.
