It all started as usually, as a game of numbers. The dispute relates to a July 2006 national lottery windfall for the formerly close-knit Groener family when there were only two winning tickets for the R15-million jackpot.

Belinda Groener, of Parkside in Port Elizabeth, claimed in court papers that her brother John, of Kensington, wrote his name on her winning Lotto ticket.

But John denied this and said he was the sole and legitimate owner of the ticket.

Now Belinda has asked the court to stop John from spending the Lotto winnings which, she claims, belong to her and should be distributed for the benefit of all her siblings.

In a court application before Judge Jannie Eksteen on August 12, Belinda successfully interdicted John from touching the lottery money, which is currently in an Absa account.

Yesterday the parties were back in court for confirmation of the interdict ruling.

The siblings have differing versions of how they got the lotto ticket. Belinda said she had bought the Lotto ticket from their brother Desmond Arthur, who urgently needed cash, but John said their sister, Rauwela, had bought the ticket at his request using numbers selected by him and with his money.

He said that in her court papers, Belinda did not indicate how much money she had given Desmond for the lotto ticket. Neither is there a confirmatory affidavit from Desmond confirming her version of events.

Belinda said after the 29th of July 2006 lotto draw was announced - there were two winning tickets for the R15-million jackpot - her ticket was found to have the winning numbers and was placed in her sister Rauwela's cupboard.

She claims John had asked Rauwela to show him the lotto ticket and at Rauwela's instigation had endorsed his details on it. The matter was postponed to October 11. Source Swtn.   S