Andy Green won 1.7 million pounds, but the betting company tried to stop him getting the money. Now, though he’s about to become rich, he’s angry — about the human cost of his battle.

By Paul Martin.

Last Thursday (April 8 2021) Andy Green, 54, scored a massive court victory against Betfred, which now has to pay him 1.7 million pounds plus solicitors’ costs. The betting company had refused to pay him his winnings, claiming there had been a ‘glitch’.  

But Andy Green, 54, says the three years of legal wrangling has left him with permanent pain that no money can compensate. “They’ve stolen something from me that’s much more precious than money. 

“Nothing can bring back the happiness I failed to bring to my sister, two years older than me, and her two girls, in what turned out to be her last year of life,” He told Correspondent.World.

As we stepped into his detached house in Washingborough, near Lincoln, Andy pointed to the front-door paving stone.  “There’s my beloved sister’s nickname: Cadie.

“After she died in March 2019 I took up her backdoor paving slab and engraved her name on it, then laid it here. As I go in and out of my house I say good morning and good night to her every morning and every night.  I’ve even had her initials MJG tattooed on my hand.

“But I’m still too cut up about her death even to visit her grave. I’ve never been.  She’ll never know about our victory.”

Michaela Jayne’s daughters Abbie, 17, and Natasha, 21, remain best friends with Andy’s two girls, Charlotte, 18, and Emily, 22.  

“I can’t get over how Betfred robbed us of what we as two extremely close families would have done first with the money that was rightly mine.

“Us and our four girls were desperate to go together to DisneyWorld in Florida.

“Instead of more than a year of shared happiness, my sister saw me suffering from worse and worse heart problems, as the strain of my battle against Betfred took its toll.

“For me, it was often a living hell.  In these last three and a half years, I nearly gave up fighting for the money several times.

“It was my wonderful solicitor Peter Coyle, from Buckinghamshire, who kept advising me to keep struggling on.  He turned into my counsellor.  It was by pure luck that I selected him from all the names of solicitors I found on a random search of the internet.”

Coyle agreed to no-win-no-fee, though Andy says he had to spend ten thousand pounds in court fees just to get his case heard — and hundreds of hours of time that he could otherwise have spent with his own family, and Michaela’s.

Andy said : “No-one can understand how it feels to be assured for five days by the betting company that you’re a millionaire, and then told you’ll never get the money. It was like ripping out my heart.”

He won the money on a new blackjack game he played through the night on his laptop. Andy says he had gambled before “just for fun”, and had never made more than 500 pounds in any session.

Andy posed alongside his van — his one-man powder-coating paint company is called ‘Ultimate Finish’.  “Doesn’t that name reflect just what I finally had – an ultimate finish?” he chuckled.  

Despite his winnings – still not delivered — he intends to change nothing in his small house, except buy a new garden shed.

 He said: “It’s life-changing but only as in not having to worry any more about bills coming in.

“If the van fails its MoT [a compulsory annual roadworthiness test], I can just get it sorted.

“I won’t let it go to my head.

“I’m not going to be one of those guys who goes out and buys a Ferrari. My van suits me fine.”

His focus is on his and his sister’s children.

“It will be wonderful to create new memories and new holidays. But it won’t be the same without Cadie.”

Another plan is to help people who’re denied their rightful winnings by “brutal” betting companies.

“I believe I’m not the only guy who’s been shafted.  These firms claim there was a glitch, and then they try to give you a small proportion of your winnings and get you to sign a non-disclosure agreement.  That’s a gagging order.

“They offered me first £30,000, then £60,000, to sign one and go away.  I wonder how many people are badgered into doing the same when they win big.  

“I appeal to anyone in that situation to speak up and never give up.”