A man who scooped a $1.3 million Lotto prize has been ordered to split his winnings with his former partner.
The Court of Appeal has ruled Paraparaumu man Malcolm Rabson must not only share the prize pot with former partner Linda Gallagher but also pay her $300,000 from the capital gains from the sale of three houses in both their names which were purchased with some of the winnings.
Mr Rabson had claimed he had bought the winning ticket on behalf of a trust before the relationship began.
The pair began their six-year relationship in late 1999 and Mr Rabson bought the ticket on November 5, 2001, but did not discover he had hit the jackpot until he checked the ticket in February the following year.
The Court of Appeal agreed with an earlier High Court decision that the winning ticket was jointly owned and the prize should be evenly split.
Justice Mark O'Regan said High Court Justice John Wild was "correct to find that the Lotto ticket was purchased for Mr Rabson and Ms Gallagher jointly and that the Lotto prize money was therefore relationship property", the Dominion Post reported.
NZN