Perps exposed by security integrity testing program
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A grand jury in Louisville, Kentucky, has handed down indictments against four individuals charged with state lottery fraud. One of the four is also charged with providing false information to state lottery investigators.
The Kentucky Lottery Corporation's (KLC's) security department launched an Integrity Testing Program in March of this year. The program's goal was to determine if store clerks were following procedures for cashing winning tickets. During the investigation, undercover KLC security personnel presented clerks with tickets that appeared to be $8000 winners. "When the tickets were presented, security personnel told the clerks he or she didn't know if any of the tickets were winners," said the KLC's Senior Vice President of Security Bill Hickerson. "It was up to the clerks to scan the tickets to see if they were indeed winners."
KLC security personnel went to 33 retailers in Louisville and Lexington. The retailers were specifically chosen based on previous customer complaints or prior cashing activity. Special tickets were produced by the KLC's instant ticket provider (Scientific Games) for the operation. Internal alerts were received when someone attempted to cash them.
At three retailers, these special tickets were kept by the store clerks and later presented at KLC headquarters in Louisville for payment. The results of the Integrity Testing Program, including all facts and circumstances concerning the activity involved with these tickets, were provided to the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office. The Commonwealth's Attorney's Office presented three indictments to the June term of the Jefferson County Grand Jury.
The Grand Jury subsequently has indicted the following individuals on charges of state lottery fraud, a Class B felony which carries a term of 10 to 20 years in prison:
- Vaishaliben Patel, in conjunction with tickets presented at Hunter's Market, 6303 Lower Hunters Trace in Louisville;
- Joanne Wiggins, in conjunction with a ticket presented at Meijer Gas #162, 9905 Dixie Highway in Louisville;
- Bhaggy Patel and Hardik Patel, in conjunction with a ticket presented at Pantry Fresh, 464 Squires Road in Lexington.
Hardik Patel was also indicted on an additional charge of providing false information to state lottery investigators, which carries a term of 1 to 5 years in prison.
"Upon a thorough and complete review of the investigation performed by the Kentucky Lottery Corporation's security department, as well as a thorough review of all applicable Kentucky law, the decision was made to seek indictments of the individuals involved," said Commonwealth's Attorney R. David Stengel. "Many years ago, when the lottery first started in the Commonwealth, the state legislature enacted a very specific set of laws to govern the operation of the lottery in Kentucky. The Kentucky Revised Statutes governing the lottery specify what shall be felony offenses and what shall be the appropriate penalties if those offenses are committed. The indictments returned today reflect the application of these statutes to the conduct of those named in the indictments."
"While I'm disappointed in the actions of these individuals, I continue to believe the overwhelming majority of our retailers and their clerks are honest in their dealings with our players," said KLC President and CEO Arch Gleason. "These numbers don't reflect an overall picture of our retailer base as these particular stores were visited because of prior complaints or previous cashing activity. They were not randomly chosen, and as a result are not representative of the behavior of our 2800 Kentucky Lottery retailers."
In addition, three other retailers told the security personnel the tickets weren't winners and then returned them to the individual that presented the ticket. "This is a training issue that will be addressed with our retailers," Gleason said.
"We've said for some time now that players have two ways to protect themselves – low-tech and high-tech," said Gleason. "On the low-tech side, we encourage players to always check their tickets closely to see if they're winners, and sign their tickets before handing them over to be scanned. On the high-tech side, players can check their tickets in a self-service scanner at nearly all retail locations to see what they've won before they turn over tickets. In addition, video monitors placed at nearly all KLC retailers show a player whether or not a ticket is a winner. These measures protect our players and our retailers."
Players are encouraged to contact the Kentucky Lottery's security department through their Fraud Watch program if they feel they may have not been properly paid a prize. Information can be submitted by phone at (502) 560-1813 or via email at klcfraudwatch@kylottery.com. "We have the ability through our computer systems to quickly look at any single transaction. This allows us to investigate any activity on a ticket to determine what happened at the terminal during a transaction," said Hickerson.
Gleason said the Integrity Testing Program will continue, but since the operation is an ongoing security measure, no additional details will be released at this time.
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That Mr. Patel just can't seem to keep his hands out of other people's cookie jars.
There does seem to be an awful lot of lottery retailers with that last name in every state.
we need a list of convenience stores that are run by anyone named patel..it would probably be in the tens of thousands.. better option is for your scratch and lottery players who can't figure out on your own if you won or not to either stop playing or figure out how to find out if you won and stop relying on store clerks to determine your outcome...
If I'm not mistaken, lots of Patels have been nabbed for this kind of fraud. Times are hard but you dont take what does not belong to you.
Everybody was taught that by their mama!
Those pesky Patels, From now on I'll just ask the clerk if his/her name is Patel. If it is I'll run out the door.
"we need a list of convenience stores that are run by anyone named patel"
This will get you started
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=convenience+stores&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=52.152749,79.013672&z=4
The never ending saga of the Patels continues.
LMAO when I saw those names!
Their parents must have had a sense of humor.
Bhaggy?
Harddik? <----------- LMAO!!!!
I wonder if Harddik had to wear bhaggy pants? LMAO!
On another note, kudos to Kentucky!
TN would never consider checking to see who's cheating.
They really don't care and the news might be bad for business.
So don't anyone call and suggest it cuz the Dragon Lady will stomp your head into a fine pulp.
She doesn't like suggestions.
jeez patels reach all the way to kentucky . patel allert.
Lets not go there again today,lol,Dragon Lady If there were ever a name that fit you found it ridge.Worst lottery in the country,sure she wants kept quite.If she would let people win that supported the lottery WIN it wouldnt have that reputation. Each win goes hand and hand....Hit on a scratch off play more scratch offs,,,,win a pick 3 or 4 play more scratch offs, buy more powerball.Is she so stupid to get the concept.Maybe she is a PATEL too.
ROTFLOL! Rdgrnr, you truly are the gift that keeps on giving!
faber98, a list of stores not run by patel would prolly be shorter.
ridge,laughing so hard icn hardly type,good thing i had already finished my soda or it would be coming out my nose,LOL
i work i a hotel casino in atlantic city.more than half the people in the hskp. dept.are patels .i guess their 2nd jobs are in conv. stores.
what cracks me up is that the 4 ky store clerks who fell for the sting must have been doing this all along. i wonder if they were smart enough to have someone else cash the tickets they previously held or if they were so greedy they didn't want to pay the 10% fee to someone else. they all must have had an adrenelin rush when someone came into the store and asked them to check their tickets because they were too lazy too. you have to blame the customer for being lazy and stupid.
Or maybe she's married to one..
rdgrnr......this southernbelle finds you to be a real charm......I cannot stop laughing.....I needed this to start my July off with real "fireworks"...
tt someone at work told me that name is like smith,although i don't imagine anyone named smith would agree w/ that.btw cool tagline.
One way to find out if you win or not without going to the store is to scratch the ticket to reveal the serial numbers. Enter the serial number in your state lottery replay program website. If it is a winner, the website won't accept it. It will tell you that your ticket is probably a winner. At least that's the case with California.
What if the retailer understands your line of inquiry and therefore lies to you about their last name ... continuing to POUND their neighbors?
tell them you know baggi patel and ask if hes related. ha-ha
This type of thieving is probably occurring daily amongst desperate minimum wage earnings people working these retailer machines in our ten-year-term depression riddled country. Worth the frightening risk to several of these people who receive a pretaxed $15K annual (lose ones sanity) income. Though the thieving action is still wrong, for whatever reason or state-of-being a person has.
Therefore, I recommend that lottery ticket purchasers FIRST understand the game's rules, then purchase the game's lottery ticket, and finally check their lottery ticket more than once.
Don't you think some of their customers are desperate minimum wage earnings people too? Clerk or not, a crook is just a crook who would probably steal from the store too if he thought he could get away with it.
Not applicable, RJOh, as an employed [or unemployed], customer doesn't have similar access dynamic to hords of past draw lottery tickets being brought in for verification on an hourly basis.
Shame on them! I guess this was not their first time stealing from players. Hopefully, this is the last time.
Patel
Patel (Gujarati: ????, pa?el, pronounced [p??el]) is a surname of Indian origin, originally meaning "headman" or "village chief".[1] Patel's are predominantly of Gujarati origin (see Gujarati people). The name Patel derives from Patlikh, the record keeper named by princely rulers in Gujarat to keep track of the crops, pat being a parcel of land. Patels are not Kshatriyas , they are coming under vaishya or vanik community. The surname itself is not bound to a particular caste or group, and exists across a variety of Indian cultures.
we should round up all the patels, take them to a seaport, rent a barge, give them 10.00 and a new pair of shoes and drop them off at whatever country they wish to re-enter...
Poor Patels...
Wait till Bubba gets his hands on some curried meat....