Soldiers syndicate invades Lotto HQ to collect €453k

A troop of 20 soldiers collected their winnings of €452,700 from the National Lottery headquarters yesterday.

The 3rd Infantry Battalion Syndicate from Kilkenny won the prize on 27 August.

The group is made up of men aged 23-54, from Cork, Kilkenny, Waterford, Tipperary, Laois, and Carlow.

The soldiers started playing Lotto together in January 2015.

In May of this year, the group started to buy their tickets online on the National Lottery’s website, lottery.ie.

Syndicate spokesman, Daniel McGrath, from Cork, said: “Our first online ticket purchase in May was a QuickPick and we decided to keep those same numbers going. Good thing we did!”

The group is made-up of 18 privates, one corporal, and one sergeant. They will split the winnings between them, each taking home €22,635.

Clive Parsons, from Kilkenny — who organises the Lotto tickets — spoke about his surprise finding out the group had won.

“I’d an email from the National Lottery saying we’d won but I didn’t read it until the next day as I thought it would just be for a few euro. I was out with the family and took a break to look at my emails. I scanned down the page and saw that we’d won a few small prizes on the first two lines and then I saw the big one — €452,700. Well, I couldn’t believe it! I’d to be careful not to crash the car on the way home, I was in such a state,” said Mr Parsons.

Syndicate of 20 soldiers from Kilkenny picks up Lotto winnings. I'll have more in The 5.30 #TV3News pic.twitter.com/My8KTxkRQq

— Geraldine Lynagh (@GerLynaghTV) September 13, 2016

Mr McGrath said the money will come in very useful as there are some big milestones coming up for members of the group.

“There’s a few lads getting married soon and a couple are buying houses, so it couldn’t have come at a better time for them. And two have newborn babies, so the money will give them a good start,” he said.

“We’re all delighted and we’ll have a few drinks together back in Kilkenny today to celebrate... and a day off work tomorrow.”

The soldiers won the biggest prize on offer in this category as previously the Match 5+ Bonus Prize was guaranteed at €25,000.

There were two lucky winners of last Saturday’s €4.6 million Lotto jackpot prize.