By Sarah Robinson

Last updated at 11:49, Thursday, 03 January 2013

A Lottery syndicate has been celebrating after winning a staggering £2.4 million.

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Christmas came early for the group of four friends who scooped the cash in Wednesday’s National Lottery.

Jason Ball, Lea Somerfield and Alex McDonald of Jink Tattoo Studio in Whitehaven and their martial arts friend Nigel Fouracre celebrated in a ceremony last night.

The group – who play under the name the Jink Boys – scooped £2,449,143 by matching the winning numbers of 4, 26, 33, 41, 48 and 49.

They will each receive just over £612,285.

Lea, 43, syndicate leader and piercer at the shop on James Street, said: “I went to Moresby Post Office on Thursday morning to pay for the next lottery ticket and use the same numbers.

“They checked the numbers and said we’d won the big one! We started playing together about five months ago.

“Until now, we’ve had a handful of small wins – about £2 or so – but nothing of this scale.

“None of us could quite believe it, it was incredible.

“It couldn’t have happened at a better time with Christmas just days away.”

Lea says he dashed to his fiancee’s Deborah’s home then contacted the rest of the group to give them the good news.

He said: “We went to Jason’s at about 7am and he started crying with joy.

“Then we woke up Nigel and then Alex. They thought I was winding them up!”

He said the win wasn’t going to change his life, although he and Deborah, who are soon to be married, plan to buy their own house and a Range Rover Sport.

For Jink shop owner Jason Ball, 42, the money will be a welcomed bonus for Christmas.

“I’ve made myself skint this Christmas, so I can put this money back in the bank!” he joked.

“I want to buy some new wheels for my van, a new motorbike and maybe treat my kids.

“We are still going to have the tattoo shop and I’m going to be putting money into the business,” he added. “We never expected to win.

“You want to win, but we never expected it. It’s just starting to sink in now.”

Tattooist Alex, 24, said he’s unsure about what to spend the money on at the moment, as he’s still in shock.

Nigel Fouracre, 37, from Whitehaven, said his money will go into his business, the Fist Taekwondo club. As the only member of the syndicate not to work at Jink, he said he will be ploughing his money into the martial arts business he set up in March.

He said: “Because we live so far away from the tournaments, some of the money will go towards travel costs. I want to be able to take members to tournaments to win and raise our profile. I’m going to invest in the club.”

Lea said that the foursome will continue to play as a syndicate and buy their ticket from the Moresby Park Post Office.

The estimated jackpot for Saturday is £4,000,000.

First published at 10:56, Saturday, 22 December 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk