Branson delays decision on Lottery action

LONDON (Brand Republic) - Sir Richard Branson is to delay his decision on legal action against the National Lottery Commission, after losing his fight to run the National Lottery.

Sir Richard yesterday left the UK for the Caribbean island of Necker to spend Christmas with his family, and will delay his decision on whether to take legal action against the National Lottery Commission until the beginning of next year.

According to a report in The Times, Sir Richard last night asked for a formal investigation into whether Camelot misled the commission over its dealings with its software supplier G-Tech.

G-Tech discovered a technical fault in its system, which meant that since 1994 up to 100,000 lottery players were deprived of their proper winnings. The company covered up the problem until it was revealed by the press in May this year.

Its link with G-Tech meant that Camelot was excluded from the bid for the National Lottery franchise earlier this year but, at a judicial review, Camelot claimed that it knew nothing about problems at G-Tech until May.

However, The Times claims that a letter -- given to it and Sir Richard by Benjamin Pell, the self-styled investigator who takes documents from bins -- from Camelot’s lawyers Collyer-Bristow to the company shows that Camelot was advised two years ago to impose a monitoring regime on G-Tech.

This article was first published on brandrepublic.com