A lottery syndicate is celebrating after winning £70,191.
The lucky nine members of the ‘Lotter Loonies’ syndicate at Hamworthy building firm Stepnell Ltd in Poole matched five numbers and a bonus ball to win the Lotto windfall.
The members of the syndicate are made up of some of the firm’s office staff including a receptionist, contractors and quantity surveyors.
The winners range in age from employees with young families to those nearing retirement.
They have been playing the lottery for the last 14 years and play five lines a week, which were all chosen at random.
60 year old Derek Middleton, who is the syndicate’s leader and a director at the building firm said: “We play online every week and I often put on up to five weeks at a time.
“When I received a message alert to say we had won £70,191 at the weekend, I had to ask Hazel, my wife, to check it as I literally couldn’t believe my eyes.”
Derek decided to wait until Monday morning to tell the other syndicate members: “I wanted to tell everyone, personally, face to face. It was really exciting to be able to give everyone such good news.
“We work in a tough industry and to be able to tell our staff they had won the money was a great feeling.”
They all have different ideas about what they want to do with the money ranging from home improvement and retirement savings to holidays.
Derek continued: “It’s a nice amount of money to win. It will really make a difference to every one of us in the syndicate. I’ll probably spend mine on improvements to our bungalow, but it may also free up some money for a nice holiday too.”
Their winning numbers were 12, 16, 23, 25, 31, 42 and the bonus ball was 18.