Bloke went to gather £1,300 wager prize cash to find somebody beat him to it
In a regrettable turn of events, a chuffed war vet who bagged £1,300 after successfully betting on the Snooker World Championship final had the full sum swiped by a sneaky online fraudster. His mishap?
He happened to share his triumphant betting slip on Facebook.
David ‘DJ’ Gardiner, 65, of Kettering, Northants, was left buzzing when his risky £100 bet on Kyren Wilson securing the coveted Crucible crown cast in gold at odds of 12/1 paid off handsomely, after Wilson masterfully defeated Jak Jones in the May 6 nail-biting skirmish.
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However, DJ’s joy quickly evaporated into thin air when he trudged to Coral bookmakers to collect his well-earned winnings. He was informed that they’d already been nabbed from under his nose – and astonishingly, 100 miles away.
(Image: Getty Images)
Gardiner admitted that he felt gut-wrenched when the penny dropped – he remembered recklessly sharing a snapshot of his victorious betting slip on the World Snooker Tour Facebook page. And quick-thinkers now suppose that an eagle-eyed scammer sneakily grabbed a screengrab of his posted ticket and managed to successfully scan the barcode in a branch located in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs, reports the Express.
A mortified DJ bemoaned: “I was mortified but it’s my own fault. I just didn’t think.”
He continued sorrowfully: “It was probably just the excitement getting to me knowing he was about to make the final. I posted it when he was on the brink of winning his semi-final.”
Being a long-time avid snooker aficionado, even once owning a snooker hall in London and watching Kyren – a hometown lad swing towards his first world championship filled him with utter excitement that he let his guard down and crucially shared his joy online.
(Image: David Gardiner / SWNS)
He scorned himself, stating: “I was kicking myself but it’s not something I knew fraudsters had the capability of doing without having the actual slip itself. I just want to warn others out there.”
He offered a word of caution finally, saying: “Everyone is posting pictures of their bets on Facebook so people need to be aware this can be done.”
“Anybody on a phone could take a picture over someone’s shoulder and then scan that it’s got to be a loophole in security.”
DJ revealed that when he went to collect his winnings, a store employee told him the betting slip had already been cashed out at a Coral branch in Stoke. Staff contacted the branch only to discover CCTV footage of a man scanning a slip, slapping down a £200 bet with it, and pocketing the remaining £1,100.
Adding insult to injury, DJ was informed that the prize money was claimed at 8.33am – a mere half-hour before he attempted to retrieve it himself. DJ suspects the thief must have digitally enhanced the image because the barcode wouldn’t scan properly at the Kettering branch.
(Image: Photothek via Getty Images)
“He was a clever so-and-so and must have been tech-savvy. He clearly knew what he was doing and must have known how the systems work.”
“The irony is that had Kyren won earlier in the evening I’d have gone and cashed it out straight away.”
“I’m totally gutted but there’s nothing I can do about it now – it’s just gut-wrenching.”
Ex-Army man DJ, who had to quit his limo business to care for his dad four years back, was dealt another blow when his father passed away just before Christmas. DJ had hoped to use the winnings to sort out his late father’s property.
Despite his plea for Coral to honour the bet as a goodwill gesture given his situation, they refused.
DJ added: “I find that disgraceful from a company making millions of pounds.”
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“I thought when I explained the situation they might give me the money I won fair and square. They have given my winnings to somebody else.”
Representing Entain, the company that owns Coral, a spokesperson stated: “In order to prevent this kind of fraud from happening, we urge customers to keep their betting slips safe and to not share with them anyone else either in person or online until they have been safely cashed in at one of our shops.”
Action Fraud has also been notified about this incident. Pauline Smith, head of Action Fraud, commented: “It has been recorded on our system as an information report.”
“An information report can be made when a fraud has not been committed or there is suspicion of criminal intent.”
“An information report is also made if somebody is reporting fraud on behalf of a victim or a person is the victim of identity theft.”
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