B.C. woman claims fellow employee is hiding $50M Lotto Max pool ticket winner

VANCOUVER – A woman who works at Shoppers Drug Mart in Burnaby has filed a civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court stating her co-worker is hiding an unclaimed $50 million Lotto Max ticket that was part of a workplace pool.

A $50 million Lotto Max ticket was sold in Langley in March but has remained unclaimed.

Gayleen Elliott is suing Dalbir Sidhu for $52 million, breach of contract and fraud.

She claims in 2012, she, Sidhu and a number of other Shoppers Drug Mart employees entered into a contract to form a weekly lottery pool. Each member would contribute $5 to play the lottery, Lotto Max and occasionally Lotto 6/49. The eight members would specify a set of seven numbers to be played each week for the Lotto Max draw, and four members would request a Quick Pick. Elliott states in her claim that the pool members trusted Sidhu to purchase the tickets each week and report the numbers to the pool.

Sidhu was not allowed to buy personal lottery tickets with the pool’s money.

Around March 14, 2014, Elliott says she found out the winning ticket was purchased in Langley and remained unclaimed. She says she asked Sidhu about the tickets he purchased and he said he bought them from an Esso on 152nd Street in Surrey on March 14. When she asked him to show her the tickets, she says he told her they were in the box with other past lottery tickets.

She says she then searched the box but could not find any tickets from March 14. When the pool asked the BC Lottery Corporation about the missing tickets they were told their specified numbers for the March 14 draw were never sold.

Then, last week, Elliott says Sidhu sent them an email saying he forgot to purchase the tickets in March due to family engagements at the time.

Elliott claims Sidhu has been in fraudulent possession of the March 14 tickets the entire time, one of which is the winning Quick Pick lottery ticket, for his own benefit.

Elliott and Sidhu are not commenting on the lawsuit at this time.

The winning numbers for the ticket were 3, 4, 5, 7, 31, 33, 40 and the bonus number was 49.