Leeds man wins £800k dream home for just 99p after losing £200k in scam
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A Leeds man scammed out of £200,000 has turned his luck around with a 99p ticket that won him an £800,000 home and his dream car in an online prize draw
A Leeds businessman who lost more than £200,000 in a devastating scam has just pulled off the ultimate comeback — winning a dream home worth £800,000 in a prize draw, thanks to a 99p ticket he bought on a whim.
Ali Mohammed was at his rented one-bedroom flat in Leeds when he opened the door to find BOTB presenters on his doorstep with some seriously life-changing news. He’d won their latest dream home giveaway — a four-bedroom new-build house in leafy Surrey worth just shy of £800,000, plus his dream car: A Mercedes AMG C63S Convertible worth £48,500.
Still stunned by the news, Ali revealed he’d entered the draw after spotting it on TikTok. “I just had a feeling,” he said. “I thought, ‘let me get some’, and ended up buying 50 tickets.”
Ali explained how the win couldn’t have come at a better time, after his company was targeted by scammers and lost over £200,000. “We've been scammed, with my company, so we lost a lot. We lost over £200k on scams. So it is life-changing. It's shocking.”
The very next day, Ali made the trip down from Leeds to Surrey to see the property in person. “From a rented house, to go to your own house, that's life-changing. That's a future for your family.
"I'm still shocked to be honest, I didn't sleep last night, I was just thinking about it. Is it real, or is it just a dream? It's just unbelievable.”
And as he popped the Champagne by his new car, Ali laughed: “I’m a rich man now!”
In a surreal twist, he revealed that when the BOTB team knocked on his door with the prize, he was actually on the phone with an estate agent, looking at buying a house the old-fashioned way.
“Who's going to believe that?” he joked. “I had to go inside and scratch myself to check it was real!”
Ali now has the option to move into the Surrey pad with his family, sell up for a massive cash windfall, or rent it out for a solid monthly income. There’s also a cash alternative on the table — in his case, up to £610,000.
BOTB, known for its car and luxury prize giveaways, is currently offering another dream home — this time in Chichester — for the same ticket price of 99p.
To see the moment Ali found out he'd won, or to check out the latest draws from just 5p, see more here.
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