A NORTH-EAST county is second only to London in failing to claim National Lottery jackpot wins.

Figures released yesterday revealed that more than £575m in prize money has never been collected.

Statistics covering the past three years suggested big winners are becoming even more careless, with more than a dozen jackpot-winning tickets, of £1m or more, remaining unclaimed.

While 1,540 millionaires have been created since the launch of the National Lottery in 1994, 16 remain unaware of their potential new-found wealth, while hundreds more winners could have picked up life-changing sums if they had only checked their tickets within six months of the successful draw.

While London tops the list of unclaimed winners, with £9.2m outstanding, rural Northumberland comes second, with £5.5m yet to be collected.

That figure, however, is made up of two wins, with only one still eligible to be collected.

A £2.9m winner in September last year, has lost his or her chance of wealth as the 180-day period to claim the money expired in March.

But the owner of a £2.6m Lotto Extra winning ticket, bought in south-east Northumberland on May 6, still has two months to claim the prize.

Lottery winners in the rest of the North-East and North Yorkshire appear to be less careless.

A Camelot spokeswoman said last night that there were no outstanding unclaimed jackpots in Tyne and Wear, County Durham, Teesside and North Yorkshire.

Camelot will not normally pay a prize unless a winning ticket is produced.

But, if a winning ticket has been stolen, lost or destroyed and the claimant notifies Camelot within 30 days of the relevant draw, the company will consider paying out.