Mystery lottery-winner set to miss a £1m prize

It's time to check down the back of the sofa and in the bottom of your handbag: there's just a week left to claim a £1 millionEuroMillions prize.

A punter in Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, bought for a ticket for the draw in December last year, choosing the numbers 6, 10, 30, 41 and 45, with Lucky Star numbers 4 and 11.

But there's a deadline of 180 days for claiming the money - making it June 14, in this case - and the unwitting winner still hasn't come forward. If the money isn't claimed in the next week it will be lost for good, instead going to National Lottery-funded projects across the UK.

"The EuroMillions ticket was bought for the draw on 16 December when we were all wrapped up warm against the winter chill," says Andy Carter, senior winners' advisor at The National Lottery.

"Try checking in the pockets of winter clothes, or in wallets, bags and even down the back of the sofa – someone could quite literally be sitting on a fortune and the clock is ticking. We have the champagne on ice and our fingers crossed that the lucky winner comes forward to claim their winnings."

See also: Man finds winning lottery ticket days before it expires

See also: Lottery nightmare: winner misses out on million pound prize

You might think that any ticket that's been lost for this long has inevitably disappeared without trace. However, sometimes winners do come forward at the last minute.

In January this year, for example, an Oregon man claimed a $1 million prize just eight days ahead of the deadline.

But a surprising number of lottery prizes do go unclaimed - and some of them are for massive amounts. A year ago, another Huntingdon punter missed out on £1 million, for example. The same thing happened last summer to a £1 million Swansea winner.

Perhaps the biggest missed win of all was back in 2012, though, when the owner of a winning EuroMillions ticket bought in Hertfordshire failed to come forward. The punter missed out on a whopping £64 million.

This latest lucky ticket has the code VGJT 07021. If you think you're the winner, you should call the National Lottery Line on 0844 338 7551 or email help@national-lottery.co.uk.