Tycoons' Lottery battle

A HONG Kong businessman is claiming ownership of a second pounds 1.5m National Lottery ticket, having already won pounds 1.5m for the same winning numbers.

Oi Wah Hui, who owns a factory in Britain employing 300 people, bought his winning ticket in March. But he claims that he bought another ticket on the same day at the same news-agents in Bayswater, west London, with the same numbers. The High Court was told yesterday that the second winning ticket was kept by a friend, Emile Choucair, a businessman from the Lebanon.

Mr Choucair claims that he had a deal with Mr Oi that they would share any winnings. He passed the second ticket to Camelot, who have paid the second pounds 1.5m into court to await the outcome of the trial. "This case concerns greed on a massive scale," said Jonathan Crystal, counsel for Mr Choucair.