A New York man has been sentenced to up to 25 years in prison after he was convicted of possessing a stolen winning $5m lottery ticket.
Andy Ashkar, 35, was sentenced to between eight and 25 years for having the £3.2m ticket that was stolen from his parents’ convenience store in Syracuse in October 2006.
Judge Joseph Fahey, who convicted Ashkar in May of criminal possession of stolen property, handed down the sentence, saying: “You exhibited some of the most rapacious greed I’ve seen in a long, long time.”
Prosecutors said Ashkar had stolen the winning scratch-off ticket from the real winner, Robert Miles.
Lottery officials say they are close to determining whether the ticket does belong to Mr Miles.
Ashkar’s brother, Nayel, was cleared of conspiracy charges. Their father Nayef, who owns the store, is charged with conspiracy and will appear in court in September.
Police and lottery officials said Ashkar convinced Mr Miles that the ticket was only worth $5,000 (£3,200) when he bought it in 2006.
He paid Mr Miles $4,000 (£2,600), took a $1,000 (£600) handling fee and then waited until the ticket was about to expire before trying to claim the jackpot in 2012.
Ashkar’s lawyer, Robert Durr, said the getting the maximum sentence had left his client “stunned”.
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