Pulling a fast one

A man in Scotland has scammed his lottery-winning partner by secretly selling the house that she bought following her windfall. Kevin Scott is looking at jail time after he kept the sale proceeds.

His former partner Fiona Young won £20,000 ($25,415) through a lottery scratch card and proceeded to buy a new house outright in Lanarkshire for £56,000 ($71,162), also adding Scott’s name to the deed. They eventually broke up and Young moved out of the property.

Scott kept the money for himself before Young eventually found out

The 46-year-old Scott then visited a legal firm with a woman that he pretended was his former partner. They expressed their wishes to sell the property with a £45,000 ($57,184) price tag. The deal went through and Scott kept the money for himself before Young eventually found out and reported it to the police.

Unraveling the fraud

The authorities found £40,000 ($50,830) of the sale proceeds in an account under the name of Scott’s mother and £5,000 ($6,354) with one of his friends. Scott has admitted to fraudulently obtaining £45,000 ($57,184) through the 2018 sale. Police were unable to identify the woman who posed as Young.

The new owner of the property ended up selling it just seven months later for £80,000 ($101,661).

Sentencing will take place in February and Scott remains on bail, despite Sherriff Ray Small warning: “All options including custody are still open to the court and you do have a record for crimes of dishonesty.” The sheriff is also considering issuing a non-harassment order that will ensure Scott stays away from his former partner.

A precarious position

Lottery winners often fall victim to scammers, with the people close to them sometimes the perpetrators.

Talking in September to Business Insider, the winner of a $37m jackpot in Canada described how his 2015 win damaged his close relationships, inlcuding that with his best friend who scammed him out of $3.4m.

If there are any cracks in any relationship, money will burst that open.”

Randy Rush is still happy he won, believing he was only able to properly deal with the life-changing money due to the stage in life he had reached. He did note that it showed him the “true colors” of the people around him though, adding: “If there are any cracks in any relationship, money will burst that open.”

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