Store owner guilty in Canadian Lotto scam

TORONTO, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- A former Toronto convenience store owner pleaded guilty Friday in the 2004 theft of a $5.75 million lottery ticket from the rightful Lotto winners.

The winning Lotto 6-49 ticket had been purchased jointly by four friends who worked for the Toronto Catholic District School Board at the time. But when one of them took the ticket to Hafiz Malik's store, the lottery terminal didn't show it was a winner. Malik kept it and cashed it in at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. about seven months later, the Canadian TV network CTV reported.

The real winners didn't find out about the scam until 2006 after doing some investigating on their own and found Malik living in a mansion and driving luxury cars. He was eventually charged with fraud, theft and possession of stolen property

The four friends have since been given their winnings plus $788,000 in interest, CTV said.