A Spanish lottery seller has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for fraud after attempting to cash a winning lottery ticket purchased by a customer in 2012. The seller falsely told the customer their ticket was not a winner, retaining the ticket worth €4.7 million and attempting to claim the prize himself with the help of his brother, who worked for the lottery organization. The lottery company suspended payout and launched a public search for the ticket’s owner, resulting in 317 false claims. Investigators eventually traced the winning numbers – 10, 17, 24, 37, 40, and 43 – back to the original purchaser through a complex investigation involving sales data from multiple locations and a senior citizen travel organization. The original ticket holder had passed away in 2014, unaware he had won the substantial jackpot. The court has ordered the lottery winnings to be awarded to the deceased man’s estate.