A Surbiton woman who chose the same lottery numbers every week for 13 years has scooped £82,000 after accidentally filling her lottery slip in wrongly.
Karen Cramer, 45, left her glasses at home when she went to buy her ticket from Tesco in New Malden, and mistook her usual number 38 for a 36.
It meant instead of winning £67 for four numbers, her and husband Graham won £82,379 for five numbers plus the bonus ball.
All of her numbers were based on important events or dates and the 38 was Graham's age when they got married.
With their winnings, the couple plan to spend the New Year in Mexico with their son, 20, and his fiancée, and will clear credit card debts. It will also pay for his 21st birthday trip to Las Vegas in September.
Graham, 51, firmly believes the slip of his wife's hand was a stroke of fate after a very unlucky start to the year.
First, Karen was struck down with illness and then the water tank burst in their Berrylands home, causing hundreds of pounds of damage to the carpets and plastering in their kitchen, dining room and spare bedroom.
The couple went on holiday to Lanzarote to escape the drama, and learned they had got four of their numbers in the May 3 draw from an English newspaper over there.
Because they thought it was a relatively small amount, Mrs Cramer, who works as an office manager in Kingston, had been carrying the valuable ticket around in her handbag for weeks, without realising it was worth so much.
They only remembered to cash the ticket several weeks later and thought there was a mistake when the message "Contact Lotto" came up.
Mr Cramer said: "It was one of those Del Boy and Rodney moments, when they realised how many millions they had won.
"Karen didn't believe it until we picked up the cheque.
"The fact that she made such a mistake means it has got to be fate. We have never won anything before in our lives and we are not lucky people."
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