A woman with a serious illness who misplaced her winning lottery ticket shortly after being discharged from hospital has gone to court to stop Maltco from transferring her €820,000 winnings to third parties.

The woman filed an application for a warrant of prohibitory injunction after Maltco ignored her previous claims for the prize.

She explained that she had been trying her luck by playing the same numbers over the last nine months, always taking her old tickets to a Qawra point of sale to have them scanned and replaced with new tickets.

It was shortly after being discharged from hospital that she had misplaced the winning ticket which was inadvertently thrown away with the ‘old’ batch of tickets, she told the court in her application.

She told the court that there is evidence to prove that she had purchased the winning ticket and requested Maltco not to transfer the funds to anyone but her.

Her lawyer, Carlos Bugeja told Times of Malta that his client’s action was “a matter of literally life and death, and not one of simple monetary gain.”

“She has ample evidence proving that she bought the winning ticket, which unfortunately she was dispossessed of due to the ordeal of having been admitted to hospital because of grave and serious health issues,” he added.

The woman has been trying to claim her prize since the beginning of June. She even sent Maltco Lotteries Limited a judicial letter on June 20 followed by the filing of a civil action on July 8 whereby she successfully obtained a warrant to retrieve IT data on Maltco’s system that would support her claim.

The latest application for a warrant of prohibitory injunction was filed Wednesday following a press release issued by Maltco that unless the €820,000 is claimed by today, the funds will be transferred to the Good Causes Funds.

“My client would like to clarify that she appreciates the benefit derived by the money being given to the Good Causes Fund and does a lot of charity herself,” Dr Bugeja said.