Watch: Billingham couple popped into Tesco for pick and mix - and win £100,000 on scratchcard

Kimberleigh and Dean Aby have spoken of the moment they won £100,000 on a £2 Monopoly scratchcard

View gallery

Gallery: £100k Scratchcard winners Kimberleigh and Dean Aby

View gallery

A trip to the shop for a bag of sweets led to a life-changing lottery win for a Billingham couple.

Kimberleigh and Dean Aby won £100,000 on a £2 Monopoly scratchcard after bus driver Dean, 28, stopped off at the Tesco store on Leeholme Road in Billingham for a bag of pick and mix on Friday, March 14.

The couple were planning to spend that evening watching a DVD.

Kimberleigh, 26, the assistant manager at Barnacles fish and chip shop in Yarm, said: “I asked him to pick up one of the £2 scratchcards, and I said ‘because we never win on the £1 ones’. We hardly ever buy them, only once in a blue moon.

“I scratched it off in the car, and I didn’t win on the first or second game, but as I scratched off the third game, I couldn’t believe my eyes as it revealed that I had won £100,000. I just started screaming.

“I rang my mum while Dean went back into the shop to check it and she said ‘stay on the phone until he comes back’.

“They couldn’t believe it either.”

Dean, who usually drives the number 7 or 15 routes in Stockton, said: “My mum Linda is a manager in the shop, and I was just running up and down the aisles looking for her so she could check it.

“She was in a manager’s meeting and said ‘not now, Dean’ but then I showed her the ticket and we got it confirmed. It just felt amazing.”

The pair took a trip to the MetroCentre at the weekend to treat themselves, and spoil three-year-old daughter Ella at the Disney store.

“We were just screaming when we found out, and Ella was in the back and started crying and asking us what was the matter,” continued Dean.

They plan to buy a new car, take their family on holiday and buy the Billingham house that they currently rent from Kimberleigh’s parents.

The couple met at Billingham Campus School, and have been together for six years, marrying last June at Gisborough Hall.

And Dean said their win is the perfect start to married life.

“We rent our house and we weren’t sure if we would be able to get a mortgage because it is difficult to save for a deposit.

“But knowing that you don’t have to think about money for a while, is a nice feeling,” said Dean.

“I think it sunk in that we had won when we were at the MetroCentre and didn’t have to worry about the price tags on the things we were buying.

“We only popped into the shop because we were going to visit my sister and she was not going to be at home for another 45 minutes. I’m just glad we stopped off.”