Story by Robin Cottle.
Scooping millions of pounds on the lottery would be a life-changing event for most people.
That was the case for Joel Ifergan, but not in the way he had hoped. For while he thought he had bought a ticket that entitled him to a share of the £14million jackpot, a seven-second error meant that he never saw a penny of the huge fee.
Joel went into a convenience store in Quebec, Canada shortly before the 9pm deadline on May 23, 2008, to buy tickets that night’s Lotto Super 7 draw.
The store worker told him to hurry to beat the deadline, and Joel thought he had been successful in purchasing two tickets for the draw. The clock on the lottery terminal read 8.59pm.
Lottery ticket© Getty Images
Unfortunately for Joel, only one of the tickets was registered in time. The second ticket was registered on the Loto-Quebec website seven seconds after the deadline, making it eligible for the following week’s draw.
As luck would have not (or not, for that matter) the second ticket is the one that would have been entitled to a share of the huge C$27million jackpot.
As it is, the whole sum was claimed by another lucky winner. Rather than merely rue his bad luck, Joel went down the legal route to try and resolve the matter.
What followed was a seven-year legal battle through the Canadian court system with the Supreme Court of Canada eventually rejecting his appeal.
Lottery Balls© Getty Images
Accountant Joel thinks he sunk around £53,000 into his eventually fruitless legal case. The Quebec Superior Court and the Quebec Court of Appeal had earlier ruled against him.
He said: “I’m really disappointed in the decision, and it’s not because it’s about the money. It’s a question of fairness. A transaction initiated before 9 PM should be honored.
Joel asserts that had the ticket been bought anywhere else in Canada, he would have been a millionaire. This is because in the rest of the country, they shut down at 9pm and punters can’t buy a ticket.
But every purchase in their system prior to 9pm gets processed and you get a ticket, even if it comes out of the machine afterwards.
He said: “Yes, it cost me a lot of money, but it also consumed me for seven years. My crusade is up, I’ve done all I can, I spent enough money going to the Supreme Court.”
Loto-Quebec spokesman, Jean-Pierre Roy, said at the time that he is satisfied with the Supreme Court’s decision.
He said: “The (original) judgement was clear and convincing that Loto-Quebec procedures were altogether reliable and integrated and were the right ones.”
The convenience store owner who sold Joel the tickets, Mehernosh Iranpur, says the customer knew the second ticket was for the following week’s draw.
