Support from fellow lottery retailers for Sriharan Rajan continues to arrive. For those who missed the original story, Sriharan lost his terminal after a customer complained about a late £40 payout. Sriharan maintains that the machine had frozen (due to the satellite dish) but Camelot said there was no evidence of this. He eventually spent £2,500 on legal fees in a fruitless attempt to get his terminal back.

Tim Marron, director of One Stop News which has four stores in Newcastle Upon Tyne, writes: "The same thing has happened many times at our stores for payouts or tickets being produced or scratchcard payments not processing immediately. A few minutes later when normal service resumes the terminal authorises the payout."

Ross Wardman, manager at Ian Florey's Spar in Sissinghurst, Kent, said the satellite dish was "terrible" and should never have been put there in the first place. "Camelot installed it in a listed building in a conservation area and applied for retrospective planning permission without owner Ian's knowledge," he said.

"Prizes were taking ages; one took two hours and was only for £10. We were lucky that our customers didn't make a fuss. He (Sriharan) did just what I would have done apologised for Camelot's machine."

The dish has since been removed.

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