Scratch and win contested. Investigation for theft, but the tobacconist defends itself: "It was mine"

• The tobacconist who had stolen a 500 thousand euro Scratch and Win was blocked in Fiumicino

• He wins 500 thousand euros with a scratch card.

  The tobacconist takes it and runs away

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06 September 2021 The Naples Public Prosecutor investigates the theft of the 500,000 euro Scratch and Win that took place last September 2 in a tobacconist in the Neapolitan district of Materdei against a 70-year-old woman.

Investigators have ascertained that Gaetano Scutellaro, the man blocked and reported yesterday in Fiumicino as he was leaving for the Canary Islands, after the subtraction of the winning coupon, took refuge in Latina and here he deposited the ticket in a bank, opened a current account bank in his name in which to converge the winnings when the waters had calmed down.

Confirming the circumstance was the same banking institution which blocked the operation of the account pending the order for the seizure of the ticket by the judicial authority.

"I bought the ticket from an acquaintance of mine the day before, I only asked the lady to go and collect the winnings which I thought amounted to only 500 euros. I wanted to flee abroad because I don't feel safe in Naples. I am not the tobacconist, but the ex-husband of the owner, "Scutellaro told the site iNews24.it.

"After scratching, I noticed a win, but I thought it was only 500 euros. I asked the lady for a favor, if she could withdraw it for me," he insists.

However, when the woman, as Scutellaro reconstructs, was late in coming out of the resale with the money, he would have approached her and asked her "what had happened and she told me that I had to go to the bank to collect my winnings. hand in the coupon and I went away. This was all recorded by the tobacconist's cameras. " And he reiterates that he tried to get away from Naples "out of fear, I hadn't even read the news of the lady's complaint".

Meanwhile, Adm, the agency of the Excise, Customs and Monopolies, has started the procedure for the suspension of the activity of both the betting shop and the resale itself after the tobacconist's gesture.

Adm immediately proceeded to block the collection of the winning ticket. Furthermore - a note reads -, in order to protect consumers and to safeguard the legitimacy of the rules on public gaming, it decided to initiate the procedure for the precautionary suspension of the fiduciary relationship at the basis of the concession granted ". For these reasons the Offices ADM of the Campania Management were tasked with assessing with extreme urgency "the immediate suspension of both the betting shop and the resale itself, pending the outcome of the investigations at the end of which it will be possible to assess the conditions for the revocation of all titles granted by the Administration. "

Ironically, according to the data of the Customs and Monopoly Agency, 502,455,754 euros in prizes obtained through instant lotteries were not collected, a figure that represents about 1.56% of the overall total won, which amounts to 32,218,879,518 billion euros. The 'black' year for the careless was 2019.