Members of a National Lottery syndicate from Burnham-On-Sea are planning their futures after scooping nearly £400,000 on a jackpot win.
The five-strong family syndicate run Poples Domestic Appliance Repair Services in Abingdon Street and have been spending £5 a week on lottery tickets for more than five years without success.
But all that changed on March 24th when their six numbers came up and they won a share of a £3.9 million jackpot – which had 10 winners – netting the group a tidy £390,591, or £78,118, each.
The syndicate members include Colette Pople, 19, her sister Jemima Holding, 21, and husband Peter Holding, 23, father Roger Pople, 45, who owns the shop, and his best friend Ian Parsons, 50.
Mr Pople says the business he has run for 20 years won’t be closing. “It’s brilliant to win, although it hasn’t quite sunk in yet. It is a bit surreal coming into so much money as I have never won anything in my life.”
“We are still going to carry on the business and our lives as normal but we have a bonus in our back pockets.
“Ian is the lottery man, he buys and checks the tickets each week but on this occasion he left the ticket in the shop over the weekend.”
“So it was not until he checked the numbers on Monday morning that we found out we had won and we had an exciting day at work talking about it.”
Mr Pople is planning to spend his share on paying off a loan, investing in the business, buying new clothes and booking a family holiday.
Jemima was even more excited after winning two shares of the money with her husband. She said: “I was really excited when I found out but it still hasn’t sunk in. I thought I would go on a big spend up but I am being sensible. I have two young children and our future to think of, so I am using the money to buy a house on one of the town’s new housing estates.”
Colette has been spending some of her money on clothes and Ian is using some of his share to pay off his mortgage and is now cutting down his work hours.
The winning Lotto numbers on Saturday 25 March were 02, 06, 10, 17, 29, 30, and the bonus ball was 09. The ticket was bought from GW Hurleys in the High Street.
