A couple who won over $1 million are battling over who gets the life-changing sum of money following their breakup.
For many of us, winning the lottery is the stuff of dreams.
But for one couple, their win turned out to be more of a nightmare.
Michael Cartlidge and Charlotte Cox won a six-figure sum together but soon after, arguments sprang up about who really had a right to the cash…
Cartlidge, 39 and Cox, 37, both from Spalding, UK, won £1 million ($1.3 million) from a Lotto scratch card but mere weeks after their big win, the couple went their separate ways.
It was Cox who made the decision to end the three month relationship.
Yet it led to another huge fight… who actually had the right to the $1.3 million winnings?
Cox spent her own money on the winning scratch card and the mom-of-one was also the one who scratched the card off, revealing the winnings!
However, Cartlidge claims that it was his idea to buy the ticket and that he’d tried to send Cox the money she spent on the card.
Initially, the lottery organizer was a company called Camelot.
After Camelot reviewed CCTV footage of the couple buying the card, Cartlidge claims they ruled that the winnings should be split, per the Mirror.
But the lottery has since been taken over by another company called Allwyn, who have instead ruled on Cox’s side.
So now, Cartlidge is considering legal action.
“I am in shock,” he told The Sun. “I can openly admit that we wouldn’t have got that ticket without Charlotte, but she wouldn’t have got it without me either. I know it was her bank account that paid for it, but it should go 50-50 morally.
“We were in the shop and I went on my Halifax app because I didn’t have my bank card. I started the transfer, I held it up to show her. You can see me doing this on the shop CCTV, which Camelot has.”
One source on Cox’s side disagrees, saying: “One million pounds has never brought so much misery. It’s ruined the last three months for her and her family.”
The source adds: “Mike has no right to this money. He is not a nice person. Charlotte won, she paid for the ticket and she scratched the ticket. The case is closed.”
A spokesperson confirms to The Sun: “The National Lottery Rules for Scratchcard Games make clear that only one person can be the owner of a ticket and that only the person whose name and address is written on the back of a winning scratchcard can claim a prize.
“This means that a prize can only be paid to one person and this is always communicated clearly to prize claimants.
“Where a claimant agrees to share a prize with other parties (for example, players in a syndicate) after the prize has been paid, we always recommend that a legal agreement is drawn up between the interested parties.
“If there is no agreement in place, any dispute between the parties needs to be resolved between themselves.”
Now that’s a messy breakup.