A restaurant owner who scooped a million pound jackpot on the lottery has been forced to share half the cash with one of his staff after a judge ruled that the waiter had dreamt about the win the night before.
Hayati Kucukkoylu, who runs the Kapadokya Turkish restaurant in York, could not believe his luck when his numbers came up on the EuroMllions draw in January 2012.
But his celebrations were short lived when Fatih Ozcan, who waited tables at the restaurant, demanded half the money, insisting had it not been for him, his boss would never have entered the lottery draw.
Mr Ozcan argued it had been his idea to buy a ticket having predicted the jackpot win the night before in a dream.
And now a judge has agreed with his claim and has ruled that the warring pair split the money equally down the middle.
The dispute over the win began just hours after the draw was made with Mr Kucukkoylu insisting the jackpot was rightfully his because he had paid for the ticket and had chosen the winning numbers.
But superstitious Mr Ozcan, who had purchased the winning ticket from the local supermarket, was adamant it was his premonition that had prompted the win.
As the dispute became more bitter, the disgruntled waiter contacted the police and lottery organisers, Camelot, falsely claiming his boss had stolen the winning ticket from his jacket pocket.
Mr Kucukkoylu was arrested on suspicion of theft and questioned for nine hours by police.
Unable to settle the dispute the pair went to court and now a judge has ruled in Mr Ozcan’s favour, accepting that his explanation about the dream was entirely “plausible”.
Handing down his unusual ruling, Judge Mark Gosnell said Mr Ozcan had had a premonition about the win on the night of January 29 2012.
“He dreamt that 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 that he and Mr Kucukkoylu would win the lottery,” the judge explained.
The following day he said the waiter had “pestered” his boss for three hours before he finally agreed to enter the EuroMllions drawer.
It was Mr Ozcan who had bought the physically bought the ticket, but insisted that the cost and the choice of numbers had been shared.
Before arriving at his ruling, the judge examined CCTV footage from the restaurant which showed the two men filling in the winning ticket.
Describing it as a “troubling case”, he said Mr Ozcan had admitted lying to police, but he said he also had “concerns” about the reliability of Mr Kucukkoylu's account.
He said the CCTV footage strongly suggested that both men had shared the task of choosing the winning numbers and that each had paid half of the £9 stake.
Ruling that Mr Ozcan’s story was “inherently more plausible”, the judge said: “I cannot see why he would be so determined to make his employer play if he was not directly to benefit.
“It is much more likely that he would badger his employer for hours if his dream was that they had played together and he needed his employer to play for the dream to come true.
“I prefer the evidence of Mr Ozcan on the determinative issues.”
The judge went on: “I find that Mr Ozcan had a dream which involved him and Mr Kucukkoylu and a large sum of money. Mr Ozcan pestered his boss into playing the lottery with him ... they contributed equally to the purchase price of the ticket.”
Although Mr Ozcan gave his boss the lottery ticket, he kept the receipt and the payslips.
The judge said that, after the waiter challenged his boss, Mr Kucukkoylu “became angry and threatening and swore at him”.
The court also heard claims that the restaurateur had “through intermediaries” attempted to persuade Mr Ozcan to drop his claim.”
Judge Gosnell concluded: “I find that the effect of these conversations was that Mr Kucukkoylu and Mr Ozcan entered into a contract to jointly play the lottery on an equal basis.
“There should be a declaration that the prize money from this winning lottery ticket should be shared equally between Mr Kucukkoylu and Mr Ozcan."
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