National Lottery winners spent month ignoring emails saying they'd scooped £120k

19 October 2023 , 18:37

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James and Sally Briggs say they're going to spend the money 'wisely' (Image: Camelot / SWNS)

A ‘laid back’ couple who entered a National Lottery draw and then spent four weeks ignoring emails from the competition as they were ‘busy’ eventually realised they had scooped up a huge £120,000 prize.

James Briggs, 42, and wife Sally, 40, didn’t open the messages from Camelot for a month after the winning numbers were drawn. But after the fourth email from the National Lottery, James finally gave them a ring and discovered he would be given £10,000 a month for the next year. The lucky pair, from Walsall, matched the five main numbers in the ‘Set For Life’ draw and say they are now going to spend some of their winnings on a holiday, a laptop and a new front door. They have also paid off a loan they used to buy a car and plan to build Sally her own arts and crafts ‘man cave’.

The couple say they are still in shock at the huge prize (Camelot / SWNS)

James said: "I received an email about the draw on August 3 but ignored it as there was so much going on. I was busy with work, then we had a holiday to Berlin to celebrate Sally’s birthday… it was only after seeing the fourth email when we got back from holiday that I actually got around to reading it.”

After waiting until the next day to confirm the cash was indeed his, James text Sally to tell her he had some news when she got home. She explained: “I thought there was a problem. I couldn’t think of anything else until I got home. Then James told me, and I just kept on repeating, ‘you what?’, I was in total disbelief.”

The relaxed husband and wife say they want to visit Vancouver in Canada with their winnings (Camelot / SWNS)

The pair say they will take wise advice from their parents to ‘enjoy yourselves, but wisely’. It means James can treat himself to the new front door he’d been eyeing up. He explained: “We need a new front door, and I was gobsmacked by how expensive they are. One quote was for nearly £5,000. I did nothing about it because we were so busy and the prices were so dear, but now we can have a nice, bespoke front door.”

Shoppers can bag 10 lottery tickets for £1 ahead of Friday's Millionaire Maker

Keen punter James also plays Lotto and EuroMillions when there's a big rollover, but has been involved in Set For Life since it began. The lottery costs £1.50 to play and offers a top prize of £10,000 a month for 30 years when the five main numbers and the Life Ball are matched or £10,000 a month for a whole year by matching the five main numbers.

Adam Dutton