A joint Lottery venture that began in a Turkish Restaurant in York sparked a bitter feud between a waiter and his employer and resulted in the two men airing their differences in a London Court yesterday.
On January 9, 2014, waiter Fatih Ozcan awoke from a vivid dream in which he was holding a large bundle of cash and standing next to his employer, Kapadokya restaurant-owner, Hayati Kucukkoylu.
A firm believer in the power of dreams, Ozcan approached his employer and convinced him to partner with him and buy a ticket for the Euromillions drawing on Friday, January 10. It took Ozcan three hours to talk his employer around, but Kucukkoylu finally agreed and Ozcan went and bought the ticket.
Ozcan's premonition would appear to have been sound because the ticket scooped a £1 million prize, but the dream turned sour when Kucukkoylu tried to claim the entire prize himself, stating the stake had come from the restaurant till and he alone had picked the winning numbers.
Ozcan rang UK National Lottery Organizers, Camelot, at once and tried to stop Kucukkoylu from claiming the prize by stating his employer had stolen the ticket from his pocket. He later admitted this was a lie.
After reviewing close circuit TV footage that indicated both men had jointly picked the numbers and had each contributed to the £9 stake, Judge Gosnell said that although, Mr. Ozcan was 'an admitted liar' his story was 'inherently more plausible' than that of Mr. Kucukkoylu's so he ruled the pair should split the prize.
Kucukkoylu plans to appeal Judge Gosnells' decision. "I have the ticket. The judge made a decision we have to share, and I'm not going to accept that," he said.
