The OLG has completed its investigation into a Chatham lottery dispute.
The OLG intends to pay half of the $6.1-million September 20 Lotto 6/49 Jackpot Prize to Maurice Thibeault by December 30. The OLG says the other $3-million will be kept for 45 days until the matter is resolved and could be held longer until a court decides what to do.
Denise Robertson is Thibeault's former girlfriend and her lawyer says that she is evaluating the next steps in the dispute but is disappointed in the OLG decision.
"Robertson feels that she is now placed in a position of unfairness and that Thibeault will have the benefit of his half of the winnings to fight Ms. Robertson's legitimate claim to her half," Robertson's lawyer, Steve Pickard says in an emailed statement. "Robertson will have to rely on her own resources to ensure that she is heard fairly in these proceedings."
Robertson says that she will "keep hoping that Maurice will simply do the right thing and acknowledge our agreement to share, knowing that he would have expected me to share with him if I had been the one to go to the store that day."
In a sworn affidavit, Robertson says she and Thibeault have been buying lottery tickets together for almost their entire relationship.
“We always agreed that if we had a winning ticket, the proceeds would be ours, together as a couple,” she says. “Together we dreamed about winning the lotto. We both love muscle cars, we would each buy one and buy a large property in the county and build a large shop to work on our cars.”
However, despite having the winning ticket, Robertson claims Thibeault made it clear that they did not have the winning ticket for the lottery draw.
“He said words to the effect that we had no luck this time and that we will both have to keep working,” she says.
A few days later on September 25, Robertson returned home from work and was shocked to find that Thibeault had moved out.
“He had packed up and removed all of his clothes, his toiletries and most of his other personnel items and his Canadian passport,” she says. “When I look back, I recall that he did approximately 15 loads of laundry of all his clothes the night prior, and didn’t put them into the drawers and closets, as if he was preparing to pack up and leave.”
Three days later, Robertson found out from mutual friends that her former boyfriend had in fact won the lottery, and was on his way to Toronto to the OLG Prize Centre to claim the $6-million jackpot.
Robertson also discovered that Thibeault, who worked as a fabricator and installer for a granite company, had sent his employer a photo of a winning lottery ticket for $6,146,722. He also sent a text message which read, “Hi Kevin, as you know Denise and I are no longer together. Since I left her on Monday another life changing thing has happened. I am sad to tell you by text but I will not be coming back to work.”