Shocking stories of lottery fraudsters, from ‘casanova’ scammer to ‘£2.5m’ fraudster

Getting your hands on the golden ticket and winning the lottery is the dream of many gamblers across the country.

But while winning the lotto has produced some incredible stories over the years, some don’t always play by the rules.

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These include some of the lottery’s biggest counterfeiters, including a “casanova” scammer and a notorious ticket fraudster.

Here are some of the people who hit the jackpot illegally – before their luck ran out.

Edward Putman, now 56, was found guilty in October 2019 of using a fake winning ticket to claim a £2.5 million jackpot in 2009.

He ‘tricked’ the heads of the National Lottery into paying out millions after misleading them with a fake winning ticket made by one of its employees.

Putman pulled off the scam in 2009 with Giles Knibbs, a Camelot employee who helped run the National Lottery.

It was just before the six-month deadline for claims that Mr Putman came forward with the ticket, which had been bought in the Co-op on St John’s Road, Worcester.

He submitted the fake and it was accepted despite being missing the bottom half and not having a barcode.

The former bricklayer told Camelot that he found the ticket under the seat of his van.

Camelot checked the ticket was genuine and Mr Putman, of Kings Langley, Herts, collected £2,525,485, telling the company he wanted to remain anonymous.

IT expert Mr Knibbs had made 100 tickets, all with the winning numbers for an unclaimed pot.

And Putman took several tickets to 29 stores before he got lucky.

He and his partner reportedly lived a jet-set lifestyle, flying all over the world and purchasing multiple properties.

But his relationship with Knibbs deteriorated after his co-conspirator began to feel he had not received his fair share of the £2.5 million prize.

The fraud began to unravel on October 5, 2015, when Mr Knibbs, 38, killed himself at Ivinghoe Beacon in Bucks.

He had confessed to friends that he and Putman had “scammed” the lottery.

After his suicide, police found notes detailing the fraud, and an investigation was opened, but it was closed when Camelot was unable to locate the alleged forgery.

It was then reopened in 2017 when a Camelot employee finally found the ticket, and in 2019 he was charged.

Putman was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to nine years in prison.

In 2012, Putman was sentenced to nine months for benefit fraud after claiming £13,000 in housing and income support, despite his fraudulent jackpot win.

He was previously sentenced to seven years in prison for rape in 1991.

In January 2022, forensic accounts attempted to flog his assets to pay off his debts and he was ordered to pay back almost £940,000 within three months.

But a year later he had only paid back £94,000 and had his house on the M25 taken from him.

Now the house has sold at auction for £1.2 million – meaning Putman could have more than £355,000 left after paying off his debts, The Mirror reports.

The property was valued at just £700,000 but it was thought that the land next to the house made it attractive to developers.

However, Putman is unlikely to get his money, the CPS said, because the court has the power to increase the value of the confiscation order.

‘Casanova’ Conman

Meanwhile, Conman John Eric Wells left his own trail of destruction and heartbreak after creating a web of lies to convince women he had won an £8.4 million jackpot.

The Doncaster decorator disappeared in 2019 after defrauding his loved ones of £400,000.

Wells, who used to go by the name Howard Walmsley, first made headlines in 2001 but has now been on the run for four years.

The unusual crook was jailed for three years after posing as a lottery winner to save his marriage to wife Kathy and scammers out of money.

He targeted banks, a lawyer, an architect, a car company and two girlfriends.

Wells even conned a woman out of £8,000 by making her believe he was about to move in with her.

He ordered a fleet of Jaguar cars and made plans for an expansion – including a swimming pool, granny flat and garages.

By the time he was arrested, he claimed to have won £8.4 million on the lottery.

His case even inspired the 2004 ITV film Can’t Buy Me Love, starring Martin Kemp and Michelle Collins.

Judge Jane Shipley, who originally jailed him at Sheffield Crown Court, told him he was living in a “fantasy world”.

Police said he also likely goes by the names Howard Walmsley and Howard Hemmings.

One of Wells’ alleged victims, Hazel Wilkins, who lives with her daughter from Rusper, West Sussex, claims Wells stole her savings of almost £63,000.

Hazel said: ‘Before I met him I had a good job, lots of money in the bank and had never been in debt.

“That man ruined my life, and who knows how many others.

“I don’t want to fall in love again. I won’t trust anyone. I’m at the point of hiding my bag.

“I just want him to be found and put where he should be: behind bars.”

He convinced her to quit her job and told her he had a 500-seat restaurant in Guernsey that she could run, which never materialized, she claims.

I feel so stupid. But he was persuasive, charming, funny and friendly. Love is blind and I was head over heels”

Hazel Wilkins

Hazel said he took her on cruises and they stayed in penthouse suites in top hotels.

Wells claimed he told her he owned dozens of hotels around the world and pretended to take frequent business trips, often sending her photos of exotic-looking locations.

In reality he worked in his hometown of Doncaster, South Yorks, where he led a double life, she claims.

He ran an identical scam against another woman, who Hazel has since been in contact with.

Hazel says Wells also claimed he had cancer and had canceled their wedding plans five times because friends and family had died.

Wells disappeared in 2017 and Hazel claims she has paid back £17,000 in loans he took out in her name, wiping out half of her pension.

He also promised to buy a house for her daughters but backed out at the last minute, leaving one of them, who had a newborn baby, desperate and homeless.

She explained: “I feel so stupid. But he was persuasive, charming, funny and friendly. Love is blind and I was in over my head.”

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