Manchester pals jailed for fraud after 'winning' £4m scratchcard using someone else's debit card

Two friends who fraudulently attempted to claim a £4 million lottery win after using someone else's debit card to buy the winning scratchcard have been jailed.Mark Goodram and Jon-Ross Watson, both from Bolton, Greater Manchester, purchased the scratchcard from a Waitrose store in Clapham, south London.The pair had travelled down to the capital on 22 April 2019 'to beg' as there was 'more money to be made' than in their hometown, Bolton Crown Court heard.Their joy soon turned to despair as Camelot - the company which operates The National Lottery - uncovered their fraud.Watson, 34, excitedly rang Camelot, before passing the phone to Goodram, 38, the court heard.An operator asked for his bank details so that the money could be transferred but when Goodram let slip that he did not have an account, it raised suspicions about how the scratchcard was bought.The next day, Camelot investigator Stephen Long rang Goodram back and asked about the card used to make the purchase.Goodram told him that it belonged to a friend named John, who 'owed him money', but could not confirm the man's surname or where he lived.

Both men sold the story of their win to The Sun newspaper, in which they claimed they had spent four days celebrating.They later hired celebrity lawyer Henry Hendron to try to get Camelot to release the £4 million, which was held pending the outcome of the investigation.Camelot's investigation was eventually passed to the police when they found that the scratchcard had been bought fraudulently using card details belonging to a man named Joshua Addiman.The investigation also found that they had used the same card details to buy £90.56 worth of goods from a Londis in Clapham.Along with the winning scratchcard, the pair also used the details to buy four other scratchcards and other items totalling £71.78 from Waitrose.Another one of the scratchcards had a prize of £10 and the man successfully claimed this in-store, prosecution barrister Denise Fitzpatrick said.Mr Addiman received the fraudulently-spent money back from his bank, the court heard.

Ms Fitzpatrick described the case as ‘very unusual’ and added: "There was little prospect of success but that is due to the rigorous checks of Camelot rather than anything done by the defendants."Both men were on licence at the time of the crimes and were arrested and interviewed in March 2020.While on bail, Goodram committed two further offences when he failed to show up at court.He was eventually arrested last Monday [Dec 6] and remanded in custody.The court heard that when officers showed up at the house he was in, Goodram tried to hide behind a sofa.Goodram, of no fixed address, has 24 convictions for 48 offences. Watson, of Nuttall Avenue, Little Lever, has 74 convictions for 143 offences.Both men have 'extensive' criminal records for 'dishonesty', Ms Fitzpatrick told the court.Robin Kitching, mitigating for Goodram, said his client has a ''long-standing addiction to drugs and alcohol" and that he is ''essentially homeless".Nick Ross, mitigating for Watson, said: "This was fantasy money... almost Monopoly money. When that figure popped up they were in total disbelief."He said that since the incident and due to the media coverage, Watson has become the subject of ridicule.Mr Ross added that Watson, who has a one-year-old son, has "had enough of crime" and described the incident as a "turning point".Both men pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud.

Watson was jailed for 18 months while Goodman was given an extra month for breaching his bail, taking his total sentence to 19 months.Sentencing, Recorder Sarah Johnston said: "You must have thought all your Christmases had come at once."Camelot were instinctively and instantly suspicious of the tale that you told."You had the audacity to plead your sense of injustice in the national newspapers, subsequent to the fraud being uncovered."You acting together throughout."Recorder Johnston added: "The intended loss was not of Camelot. It wasn't to Mr Addiman."The loss was to the next rightful, law-abiding customer who was to go into that Waitrose store in Clapham and purchase that scratchcard."For that unidentifiable individual, fate has twisted at the last minute and deprived them of a life-changing sum of money."This type of offending is serious. It is rooted in greed and a total lack of respect for the property of others."You both have appalling records for dishonesty and theft."I have no doubt that both of you will continue to offend in dishonest ways in the future."