A LOTTERY syndicate is celebrating after matching five numbers and the bonus ball in last Saturday's Lotto draw, scooping £117,558.

The five members, who all work as response and maintenance planners for Mears, a housing maintenance company in Team Valley in Gateshead, only formed the syndicate at the end of September.

Syndicate leader Debbie Stein, 27, from Fulwell in Sunderland said: “I only suggested we start the syndicate in September and we played our first line on Saturday September 29.

“Every Wednesday and Saturday since, we’ve played the same five lines. We all picked our own numbers except two members who decided to go for Lucky Dips, and it’s a good job they did as it was one of the Lucky Dips that won.”

The winning ticket was bought from a newsagent in Sunderland and the numbers from the Lotto draw on Saturday October 27 were 7, 14, 20, 30, 33, 46 and the bonus ball 27.

Ms Stein added: “As I checked the numbers I mentioned to the others that we’d got three numbers, then I said we’d got four, then I was like, you won’t believe it but we’ve got five and then I realised we had the bonus ball too.

“The others said the colour just drained from my face. I then asked them to check the numbers to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind. I then contacted the National Lottery Line and gave them the numbers and they confirmed that we’d won.”

Ms Stein kept the ticket safely in her purse until a representative from Camelot arrived the next day to confirm that they had each won £23,500 each.