Job change cost woman £3.3m from lottery win

When workers join forces to do the National Lottery it must be the most frequently cracked joke: "I don't want to be left out if you lot win."

When workers join forces to do the National Lottery it must be the most frequently cracked joke: "I don't want to be left out if you lot win."

Yesterday, Sarah Allan, 26, felt the full force of it. Six weeks ago she left her job at the butchers shop where she had worked for six years as a part-time assistant. Last Saturday, the shop's syndicate, which she had set up, won £20m. She would have been due £3.3m.

The win by the group at the Robert Perrie Family Butchers in Lesmahagow, near Glasgow, is the third biggest lottery win in Britain and the biggest in Scotland. Yesterday they told of how they picked through a bin in the shop to find Monday's newspaper and check their numbers after forgetting they had bought a ticket.

Until three weeks ago, Ms Allan, who was the syndicate's manager, was named on the group's lottery agreement. Because she had left the firm, the syndicate drew up a new contract in which Ms Allan, who has two children, had no claims on any money won.

Ironically, she left the shop to increase her earnings. She wanted to work full-time and the butchers could not offer her more hours. After hearing about the win on Tuesday, she said she thought she would be entitled to part of the win because her name was on the original syndicate document, which she set up.