A syndicate of transport workers believe one of their members may have kept a $16.7m win for himself.

IT was a bottle of champagne that first raised the suspicions of a group of co-workers that one of them was suddenly seriously rich.

The syndicate of transport workers from the Victorian city of Geelong believe one of their members may have won $16.7 million in Powerball — but instead of sharing the winnings among the syndicate the man, who Nine News said was 49-years-old, kept quiet and kept the lot for himself.

First, one of the men in their group quit the company they worked for and then they heard he had a bottle of champagne delivered to him. He also called in sick the day after the Powerball draw.

The Herald Sun reports 14 people will this week ask the Victorian Supreme Court to order Tattersalls Sweeps to give them the name of one of three winners of a $50 million jackpot.

The group reportedly suspect he won the prize without telling them because he changed his routine and acquired lots of new assets.

If the syndicate did win, each member should have each received $1 million.

None of the 14 people who are taking the legal action ever saw the ticket that was bought for their syndicate. It’s understood they only ever purchased a ticket when there was a jackpot.

According to the Herald Sun, the “Powerball 14” has summonsed Tattersalls Sweeps to appear in court on Thursday.

As well as the name of the winner, they want the method by which the winning ticket was bought, the number of tickets bought by the man, and his account history over the past five years.

They also want to know if he bought more than one ticket in the October 2014 draw, given he could defend himself by saying the winning ticket was bought solely for himself.

The $50 million October jackpot was shared between the mystery Victorian man and two other winners — a Melbourne couple who bought their ticket at Rowville and a Western Australian man.

The Geelong syndicate is only interested in the identity of the mystery Victorian man.

In a Tattersalls press release the day after the draw, the mystery winner was identified only as a Victorian man, reported the Herald Sun.

“I’m going to share the prizemoney with my family. I’ll make sure it doesn’t change who I am but I’ll definitely be able to live a better lifestyle.

“I’ll buy myself a boat and a jet ski and my kids have been wanting the new iPhone 6 so they can have that now, and I might spoil them each with a new car.”

Tattslotto spokeswoman Elissa Lewis said the organisation was bound by the Privacy Act and could only release details agreed to by winners.

“From Tatts’ perspective, it’s a matter between those syndicate members, which is why we advise customers to register a syndicate or set one up through their local Tatts outlet,” Ms Lewis said.

However, Tatts is not expected to oppose the application when it is heard in the Supreme Court on Thursday.