How Ironic: Bank-Robbing Lottery Winner May Lose Fortune

[Refugee 7]

A 55-year-old convicted bank robber may become a living example of the “Crime doesn’t pay” aphorism, as he won a $1 million lottery scratch ticket last week but may never see the money because he violated his probation by gambling.

Timothy B. Elliott pleaded guilty to unarmed robbery for a January 2006 robbery at a Cape Cod, Massachusetts bank in October 2006 and was placed on five years' probation. Under terms of his probation, he “may not gamble, purchase lottery tickets or visit an establishment where gaming is conducted, including restaurants where Keno may be played,” reports the Associated Press.

Elliott disregarded this interdiction last Friday and scratched a winning ticket worth $1 million at a Hyannis Stop & Shop; he proceeded to collect the first pre-tax check for $50,000 on Monday, according to state lottery officials, and even posed for the Massachusetts State Lottery.

A picture of Elliott, holding his first check, was posted on the lottery's Web site Monday, reports the AP, and removed by Wednesday.

“He has violated his probation and will be brought before the court for a surrender hearing on December 7,” Coria Holland, spokeswoman for the state’s commissioner of probation, told the Cape Cod Times Wednesday.

It is up to the court to determine whether Elliott violated his probation when he bought the ticket and if so, what will happen with his million-dollar prize.

Lottery spokesman Dan Rosenfeld said the lottery has a policy of routinely cross-referencing the names of winners with the state Revenue Department to see if they owe back taxes or child support, according to the AP. If such situations arise, winnings go straight to the Revenue Department.

Elliott was also put under the care of the state Mental Health Department and sent to a hospital for treatment as part of his sentence, state officials said. They declined to specify whether he was still being treated.

Image credit: Photo released by the Massachusetts State Lottery; Timothy B. Elliott is shown in the Lottery's Braintree, Mass., office Monday, Nov. 26, 2007, after he won a $1 million prize playing the Lottery's $800,000,000 Spectacular.

[Aimee Wilbury 0]

I hope that the money goes to a charity.

[Echosoftom 3]

Wouldn't you just know it...Of all the people. :icon_rolleyes:

I'll be interested to know the outcome of this one.

[nurktwin 2,143]

i'd like to know a couple of things on this. 1st of all is gambling allowed in Mass? do they have casino's and all that? if not like in ohio, then why is the lotto legal? the judge said that's gambling, well if it is, then why can't they have real gambling if they do not have it? it all comes down to greed, the states want what they THINK they should have (lotto and bingo for special groups), but the people that pay taxes and their salaries are supposed to just take it up the ass and like it. it's the same way with SIN taxes. i pay for smoking and drinking to build an OUTDOOR stadium and can't smoke there! WTF! give this man his money and he'll pay taxes, can that hurt? then again, it will hurt, george bush will spend his tax dollars on a war!

[agirl 0]

Too bad he didn't think of having someone else claim the money and split it with them.