A foreign restaurant operator has been ordered by Judge Mark Gosnell to hand over half of the Euromillions prize to his employee Faith Ozcan, according to The Express. The restaurant operator is Hayati Kucukkoylu.
Ozcan was convinced he and the restaurant owner would win the lottery that he pestered him into buying tickets so they could share the winnings. They chose the lottery numbers together. Ozcan is a waiter at the restaurant.
When they actually won the lottery, the restaurant operator claimed all of the winnings were his. The owner threatened Ozcan and cursed at him. He was even arrested after Ozcan accused him of stealing the lottery ticket.
Judge Gosnell said the following in his ruling: “Mr Kucukkoylu and Mr Ozcan entered into a contract to jointly play the lottery on an equal basis. The prize money should be shared equally between them.”
The court was told that Ozcan spent three hours talking his boss into playing the lottery with him. Judge Gosnell said, “He dreamed he was holding a large bundle of cash and standing in front of him was his boss. Mr Ozcan is a strong believer in the power of dreams and interpreted this to mean they would win the lottery.”
Ozcan went to a supermarket to buy tickets, gave them to his boss, but kept the receipts after finally getting his boss to agree to play with him.
The restaurant is Kapadokya in York. The judge watched CCTV from the restaurant, which showed both men filling out slips.
Gosnell said, “I cannot see why he would be so determined to make his employer play if he was not to benefit. It is much more likely he would badger his employer if he dreamed they had played together and he needed his employer to play for the dream to come true.”