A shop assistant has been jailed for 30 months for attempting to defraud a National Lottery winner out of £1m.

When checking pensioner Maureen Holt’s winning EuroMillions UK Raffle ticket, shop assistant Farrakh Nizzar of Best One in Oldham told her that she hadn’t won and offered to dispose of the ticket.

He later attempted to claim the prize for himself and was caught out when quizzed about where the ticket was bought. National Lottery operator Camelot was then able to identify Maureen as the legitimate ticket owner and award her the money.

Nizzar was arrested and charged with fraud by false representation. He pleaded guilty to the offence and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

The store has also been stripped of its National Lottery licence and the terminal has been removed.

A Camelot spokeswoman urged all of its agents to ensure that they and their staff were complying with the company’s values.

“If a retailer is found to be in breach of their retailer agreement, which includes obligations to pay out prizes properly, we reserve the right to terminate their retailer agreement and remove our National Lottery terminal,” she said. “We have stringent operations in place to prevent and detect fraud and to monitor suspicious activity.”