Spanish lottery ticket seller faces charges of defrauding winner of €4.7m

Man from A Coruna had been praised for trying to track down unclaimed ticket's owner - whom police found

A lottery ticket seller hailed as a good samaritan 11 years ago for apparently trying to track down the owner of an unclaimed winning ticket worth 4.7m (4.05m) faces a possible six-year jail sentence on charges that he defrauded the rightful owner of their winnings.

Police allege that Manuel Reija Gonzalez, a ticket seller in the north-western Spanish city of A Coruna, told the winner of the lottery drawn in June 2012 that his ticket was worth just over a euro and then, with the help of his brother, who worked for the national lottery, attempted to cash in the ticket himself. Both brothers have denied any wrongdoing.