Edwina and David Nylan from Fleetwood in Lancashire had the winning nubers but didn’t get any cash
Jane Lavender Associate Editor and Julia Banim Audience Writer
08:54, 29 Jan 2026
The couple won the lottery but didn’t get a penny(Image: ITV)
A couple who believed they’d scooped a staggering £35 million lottery jackpot were left empty-handed after discovering their £2 ticket hadn’t actually been purchased.
Edwina and David Nylan, who entered the draw on 23 December 2015, were stunned when six winning numbers appeared on the Lottomobile app.
In what seemed like a festive miracle, the financially struggling Nylans saw that each of their six numbers – 01 – 02 – 04 – 19 – 28 – 41 – had come up, apparently winning them an extraordinary £35,410,034.
However, their celebrations came crashing down when they tried to claim the prize – all because of insufficient funds in their bank account.
Grandmother Edwina, from Fleetwood, Lancashire, explained: “When the numbers came up, it looked like we had got all six and had won the jackpot but when I checked, there was nothing from Camelot.
The couple had the winning numbers(Image: Thomas Temple/ Rossparry.co.uk)
“I rang customer services at Camelot and the person I spoke to said they could see from their records that we had intended to buy those numbers but they said the purchase did not go through because we only had 60p in our account.
“We had tried to top up the account and hadn’t realised that hadn’t registered either. You get an email to confirm your purchase, but I didn’t remember to check because it was just before Christmas and I was so busy.”, reports the Mirror.
Edwina, who did her utmost to remain upbeat, shared her dismay: “I am gutted, but what can we do? We have played for years, and had our online account for some time, so it is not as if we didn’t know what we were doing.
“I have just had to carry on with things and not get too down. Shocked isn’t the word, but as a family we stick together and just have to be grateful for what we’ve got.”
The couple’s winning numbers(Image: / Rossparry.co.uk)
Despite the crushing blow, the couple confirmed they would keep playing the Lottery in the hope of striking it lucky next time.
A Camelot spokesperson explained: “The player did attempt to purchase an online Lotto ticket multiple times on December 23 from 7pm onwards (the cut-off to buy tickets is 7.30pm), however, there were insufficient funds in the player’s account – so the attempted purchases were not successful.
“The player would have received an error message on every occasion confirming this. We do not have any record of the player attempting to add funds to their account, nor would anyone from our customer services team have any visibility of the numbers that the player attempted to purchase because that level of detail wouldn’t be shown on the screen in front of them.
“When anyone successfully purchases a ticket on the Lottery website they will see a purchase confirmation screen, receive an email confirming their purchase and be able to see the ticket in their National Lottery online account.”
They added: “Only tickets that have been successfully purchased can be entered into the draw. So it is up to players to ensure that they have adequate funds in their account to complete a ticket purchase.”