Neighbours at war over $5 million lottery
Written by admin on August 18, 2024
Three elderly neighbours locked in a two-year feud over a $5 million lottery win have had their case resolved in court.
Sydney man Alan Way took legal action against his neighbours Mark Peter Bowling, 76, and Moya Posa, 89, in NSW Supreme Court after he claimed he was cut out of the multimillion-dollar earnings from a winning ticket purchased in August 2022.
All three neighbours were unemployed and lived at a NSW social housing apartment block in Elderslie, in Sydney’s southwest, at the time.
Mr Bowling and Ms Posa claimed Mr Way had left the syndicate in September 2021, well before the ticket was purchased, following an argument.
On Friday, Justice James Hmelnitsky put the two-year dispute to bed, ruling Mr Way was not a member of the syndicate at the time of the win.
In court, Mr Way produced diary entries to support his argument that he was regularly contributing $20 payments for the syndicate.
However, Justice Hmelnitsky said he was not persuaded the entries were reliable.
“I am persuaded to a relatively high level of certainty that those entries were not made contemporaneously,” he said.
“That being so, I am unable to accept Mr Way’s evidence that he contributed to the purchase of the winning ticket. I am not persuaded that he did so.”
Justice Hmelnitsky said Mr Way had stopped contributing to the syndicate after the fight in September 2021.
The court heard the argument erupted after Mr Way was drinking with a friend called “Young Barry” in his apartment in 2021 when social distancing restrictions were n place. At the time, neither of the pair were wearing masks.
Mr Way later found out about the winning ticket later that month but he did not know the exact amount of the winnings.
The court heard, in October 2022, Mr Bowling later transferred $200,000 to Mr Way as a “gift”.
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Mr Way later learned from another resident in the apartment block in November 2022, that the winnings were larger than he previously understood.
He was later involved in a “significant altercation” with Mr Bowling.
After the fight, Mr Bowling and Ms Posa moved away from the apartment.
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