Store owner jailed one year for stealing $5.7M lottery ticket

Jun 16, 2010, 9:31 am (16 comments)

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A former convenience store owner who cheated a customer out of a $5.7 million lottery ticket has been sentenced to a year in jail.

Hafiz Malik, 63, sat quietly as Ontario provincial court Justice Rebecca Shamai pronounced sentence Tuesday at Old City Hall courthouse in downtown Toronto.

Dressed in a black T-shirt and grey slacks, the white-haired Malik listened intently to the judge's reasons.

In December, Malik had pleaded to fraud.

He admitted to tricking a customer, Lorraine Teicht, out of a winning 6/49 ticket in June 2004.Teicht had for years had been playing the lottery with three workmates at the Toronto Catholic District School Board, playing the same numbers.

Teicht checked the ticket, on behalf of the group, at Malik's tiny kiosk on Dupont St.

But he told her it was worth only $10, and hung on to it himself, the judge said.

After the fraud was uncovered by Teicht's group and investigated by Ontario Provincial Police, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. compensated them for the ticket, plus $800,000 in interest.

Teicht wrote a poignant victim impact statement and wanted to attend Malik's sentencing hearing in April, but the 56-year-old woman died of cancer just days earlier.

At first her three co-workers suspected her of cheating them out of their share, leading to a deterioration of her relationship with them and leaving her unable to fully trust people, she wrote in a victim impact statement.

Malik hung onto the ticket before claiming it as his own in January 2005.

He then went on a spending spree: moving from his modest Toronto apartment into a $1 million mansion in Mississauga and buying a Land Rover and a Mercedes.

In February 2006, one of the bona fide winners in Teicht's group checked the lottery numbers and discovered their usual picks had come up. The group began to investigate, at first suspecting Teicht.

Crown prosecutor Philip Perlmutter had called for a 2½-year penitentiary sentence for Malik, stating that he was motivated by greed.

Defence lawyer John Filiberto called for a conditional sentence of two years less a day, to be served in the community saying that his client is sorry for what he did.

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

Toronto Star

Comments

luckyshoes's avatarluckyshoes

mmmmmmmm............... a fool and sombody elses money

dpoly1's avatardpoly1

Good !

All crooks should go to jail !

I hope that the money was taken from him !

 

Waiting for my lottery win tonight ........... I will check the ticket myself !

 

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s5thomps's avatars5thomps

                  "A WINNER NEVER CHEATS, AND A CHEATER NEVER WINS!"

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

"A former convenience store owner who cheated a customer out of a $5.7 million lottery ticket has been sentenced to a year in jail."

He only gets a year for stealing 5.7 million dollars? I would think that stealing that much money would be seen as a bigger felony.

jeffrey's avatarjeffrey

Quote: Originally posted by ThatScaryChick on Jun 16, 2010

"A former convenience store owner who cheated a customer out of a $5.7 million lottery ticket has been sentenced to a year in jail."

He only gets a year for stealing 5.7 million dollars? I would think that stealing that much money would be seen as a bigger felony.

I think they should cut off his walnuts. That would be a lesson well learned by both him and others. This happens way too often.

HaveABall's avatarHaveABall

What a guy! Mad

Nino224's avatarNino224

Hopefully the poor lady got to enjoy the money before she went.

I'm sure he'll live to be 100.

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

His greed caused the poor lady to lose a long lasting friendship, surely that in itself deserves more harsher punishment. Perhaps a bill board with his mugshot and a description of his despicable acts should be put up. I'm jus sayin

Lady_g98

he gonna pay all that money back to the customer always member to sign on the back of your lottery ticket

Kobra

yea ok, he's sorry... he is sorry he got caught.  prime example of why you should check, double, and triple check your own tickets!!!

Tenaj's avatarTenaj

I wonder why the penalties for lottery related theft are so light.  Surely he should have gotten more than one year in jail which he probably won't have to serve but a few months.

tiggs95's avatartiggs95

If a person does not know how murch thier ticket is worth when they go to cash it they should not be buying lottery tickets..

HaveABall's avatarHaveABall

Quote: Originally posted by tiggs95 on Jun 21, 2010

If a person does not know how murch thier ticket is worth when they go to cash it they should not be buying lottery tickets..

Oh tiggs95 ... some folks become lottery gamblers, like us, via receiving tickets as birthday/holiday gifts -- they eventually learn by joining blogs like LotteryPost.com

Type

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Only a year for 5.7 million dollars?

Is it the same for bank robbery up there? Would you only get a year for robbing a bank of that much?

And Canadian prisons are probably like resorts compared to the joints down here too, right?

Hmmm...

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