Convenience store worker arrested in sting involving $1,000 ticket
By Kate Northrop
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — A Florida Lottery retail employee was arrested after an undercover compliance operation caught him committing not just one, but two fraudulent acts.
Florida authorities arrested a convenience store clerk after he failed to follow required procedures in an undercover investigation.
It was one bad decision after the other for Rohail Khan, who was working at Bay Food Mart on West 6th Street in Panama City when he failed a compliance investigation conducted by the Florida Lottery's Division of Security.
An undercover official visited Khan's counter and presented a scratch-off ticket that was designed to simulate a valid $1,000 winning play. When he scanned it, his display showed a "$600-or-more winner" message.
According to an arrest report, Khan ignored the instructions to advise the ticketholder on the next steps, told the officer the terminal displayed nothing on the ticket, and gave them a free ticket, arrest documents say.
The right thing for Khan to do would have been to check the ticket and return it to the player with required claim instructions, since tickets valued at $600 and above must be claimed either by mail or in person at a Lottery District Office, not a retailer.
Instead, Khan kept the ticket, and investigators found that it had been scanned through the Florida Lottery's official mobile app shortly after the compliance check.
On May 26, an unnamed individual visited Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee days later with the ticket attempting to claim its prize. Khan had allegedly sold it to the individual for $800 — his second offense.
"Retailers are entrusted with following strict procedures that protect players and ensure fairness in every Lottery transaction," Florida Lottery Acting Secretary Reginald D. Dixon said in a press release. "When those procedures are disregarded for personal benefit, it compromises the system we rely on. Our Division of Security will continue conducting compliance operations and pursuing accountability wherever violations occur."
Khan was arrested on May 28 and charged with one count of Dealing in Stolen Property and one count of Unlawfully Selling the Right to Claim a Lottery Prize.
(Click to display full-size in gallery)
You BIG DUMMY!!
Glad these undercover operations are stilling on going and catching these thieves!
Lost your job, your freedom and now a criminal record smh...
That is why, as a lottery player, it is very important that you download, where provided, your State Lottery App.
Use it to check your tickets.
I would never ever blindly take a ticket to the retailer to check for me.
I wonder how many people have fallen victim to such individuals.