Chinese revellers buy lottery tickets in the hope of winning a car at a temple fair in Beijing January 23, 2004. A Chinese lottery ticket seller has been jailed for life for fraud for taking advantage of a system flaw to cash 28 million yuan ($3.76 million) in tickets illegally, state media said Tuesday. REUTERS/Andrew Wong

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese lottery ticket seller has been jailed for life for fraud for taking advantage of a system flaw to cash 28 million yuan ($3.76 million) in tickets illegally, state media said Tuesday.

Zhao Liqun discovered the flaw in the Welfare Lottery “3D” system in 2005 that let a person buy tickets with the right numbers within five minutes of their being announced, sources at the Intermediate People’s Court in Anshan, northeastern Heilongjiang province, said.

Zhao, 36, who ran three lottery stalls in Anshan, “bought” the announced numbers many times over.

“He asked his neighbors and friends to cash the tickets at the Welfare Lottery Center and to bring back the money,” Xinhua quoted the court sources as saying.

The lottery center found the prizes were illegally claimed and police arrested Zhao in January.

The court jailed him for life for fraud and confiscated all his property.