A woman who accused a former live-in boyfriend of bolting without telling her of winning a $6.1 million Lotto 6/49 prize is now suing for half the jackpot plus $500,000 in punitive damages.

A lawyer for Denise Robertson said Tuesday she is seeking a jury trial in the $3.5 million case against Maurice Thibeault, who lived with Robertson and her teenage daughter in Chatham from July 2015 to September 2017.

“It’s a question of morality,” Steven Pickard told the Star from his law office in Windsor, estimating it could take 12 to 18 months for the case to be heard.

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“They always agreed that if they had a winning ticket, the proceeds would be theirs, together as a couple,” says a statement of claim filed in Superior Court of Justice this week. It has not been proven in court.

“Maurice and Denise have been buying Lotto 6/49 tickets together for almost their entire relationship. Sometimes he would purchase the tickets and sometimes Denise would. Sometimes Denise would give him money, and he would buy the tickets when he went to pick up cigarettes.”

Thibeault and his lawyer, Richard Pollock of Windsor, could not be reached for comment. They have 20 days to file a statement of defence.

Previously, associates of Thibeault have told the Star there was no such ticket arrangement and that he bought the ticket at a convenience store using a debit card linked to her personal bank account. They also said he was planning to end the relationship with Robertson for months and only managed to do so when he “got lucky” by winning the lottery.

The lawsuit against Thibeault, who showed up at Ontario Lottery and Gaming’s Toronto prize centre in September with the ticket, follows a court injunction issued last fall stopping OLG from paying him the disputed winnings.

The lucky ticket with the numbers 6, 17, 29, 37, 45, and 47 was one of two winners in the Sept. 20 jackpot of $12.2 million.

Robertson, a federal public servant, is also seeking accrued interest on what she says is her share of the winnings and money to cover her legal costs.

The day after the draw, Robertson heard on a local radio station that there were winning tickets in Chatham and Quebec, and texted Thibeault, a granite installer at the time, asking if he bought a 6/49 for it, according to the statement of claim.

“Yes,” he wrote.

“OMG… check it!!!” Robertson replied.

When they both got home later that day Thibeault “made it clear to Denise that they did not have the winning ticket,” the claim continues.

The following day, she got home and was “shocked to see that Maurice had packed up and removed all of his clothes, his toiletries and most of his other personal items and his Canadian passport.”

Thibeault later texted his boss to quit, saying “Denise and I are no longer together. Since I left her Monday another live (sic) changing thing has happened” and attached a photo of the winning lottery ticket, the claim adds, noting Robertson obtained the text from a mutual friend.

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OLG has paid Thibeault half the proceeds and is holding on to the other half, which a lottery spokesman said would be paid to the court pending a decision in the case.

Pickard, Roberton’s lawyer, said the Thibeault’s current address is unknown to them and accused him in the statement of claim of “deceit, arrogance, high-handedness and a callous disregard for Denise and her rights.”

“We’ll see,” he added when asked if the lawsuit could prompt an out-of-court settlement.

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