A COUPLE who hoped to sell their house in a raffle say they will be left out of pocket – and still own the property.

Simon and Vicki Brown decided to raffle their £600,000 property, in Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, after failing to sell it on the open market last summer.

They originally hoped to sell 28,000 tickets, at £25 each, by December 24, last year, to make back the money the spent on Fellows Hall, which they built, as well as pay legal costs and donate cash to the Main Project charity.

But after the deadline was extended to yesterday, things started to go wrong when the Gambling Commission launched an investigation to check the raffle was legal.

The competition to win the home ended yesterday. However, Mr Brown said he was disappointed the winner will now get a cash prize.

He said: “I don’t know for definite, but when I checked a fortnight ago we hadn’t sold anywhere near enough tickets.

“It is disappointing, as it is a really nice house, but the winner will now get money.

“We are still going to be left with the house and we will probably end up out of pocket, as we have a lot of costs to cover. We won’t know until we have counted all the money from the raffle tickets.”

He added: “Everything was going well until the Gambling Commission got involved. It was probably one of the most famous houses in the area, then the raffle seemed to lose momentum.

“It’s such a shame it has come to this. When we came up with the idea a year ago, we really thought it would work.

“We have tenants in the house now, but we are probably going to have to put the house back on the market.

“We possibly could move back in now mortgage rates have dropped but, to be honest, we are quite settled where we are now. It just makes more sense to stay here.”

The draw will take place within the next ten days.

The Gambling Commission said it could not comment on individual cases.