A former councillor from Maple Ridge, British Columbia, who filed a lawsuit stating the son of his former common-law-wife stole his winning lottery ticket, has failed to convince the courts this was the case.
Franz Prokop claimed he purchased the ticket that won the CAD$ 3.6 million jackpot in the Canada Lotto 649 drawing on August 15, 2007.
At the time Prokop was living with Angelika Dushop. Prokop claims her son Peter Dushop had access to their home and stole the ticket. According to Prokop, Dushop then waited a year before claiming the prize.
Fervently denying the accusations, Dushop claimed he bought the ticket himself.
On Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Crawford ruled that Peter Dushop had picked the winning numbers. It later emerged Angelika Dushop had purchased the ticket for him using her visa card and Prokop had paid the visa card bill.
However, the judge stated he did not accept much of the evidence put forward by the defence.
"I was not impressed with the semantic dance over the purchase of the lottery ticket,” Crawford said, pointing out Peter Dushop told lottery officials he'd purchased the ticket himself when this was not the case.
The ticket was apparently kept in a safety deposit box for 11 months because Angelika Dushop was worried Prokop would want a share of the money if he discovered the ticket was purchased with her card and he'd paid the bill.
Crawford pointed out Prokop's allegation required him to prove he was the rightful owner of the ticket and that Peter Dushop had stolen it.
"The plaintiff has failed to establish both of these facts and accordingly the plaintiff’s claim must fail," Crawford said.
