Prizes withdrawn after organisers fail to sell enough tickets - but there's a cash prize instead

Nearly 30,000 tickets were sold at £25 each to people hoping to win the top prize of an award-winning Huf Haus in upmarket Avon Castle near Ringwood.

Owners Mark and Sharon Beresford hoped to sell up to 250,000 tickets and even threw in a £160,000 Aston Martin supercar.

But the deadline for ticket sales has now passed and they have now announced there will be a “six-figure” cash prize instead of the house and car.

They have declined to say how much will be available when the draw is made on Wednesday January 9 but the rules state that any cash draw will take place for 75 per cent of the value of the tickets sold after promotion costs.

They said the details will be announced ahead of the draw.

Mark said: “We always knew this would be a difficult thing to make work and we took a lot of legal advice to ensure it was all above board and watertight.

“As we said, if not enough tickets were sold to trigger the house as a prize we would pull out a winner at random who would take the cash prize instead.

“We are still finalising exactly how many tickets were sold and what the winner will take home, but it will all be revealed prior to the draw.

“The prize will be a six-figure sum and the odds remain very favourable compared with the Lotto, for example.”

The couple decided to offer their home as a raffle prize because they plan to move to Sussex to be near family members.

Mark said they still plan to move and that the house will be put on the market again with the aim of finding a buyer in the near future.

They made the decision to move near to Sharon’s parents after their three grown-up children left home.

The move will also make commuting to London easier for Mark, a business consultant.

The stylish and contemporary property, called Avon Place, is set in around an acre of private grounds and offers 7,000 sq ft of open plan living with views over the River Avon and Avon Valley.

It has fishing rights, seven reception rooms, a cinema room and high tech kitchen.

The property also has its own bespoke barbecue house, a games room, six bedrooms, five of which are en-suite, and is finished in finest marble and granite.

He added: “Of course it’s disappointing not to be handing over the house to the winner, but we gave it our best shot.”

The draw will be made by a random number selector computer at Sterling Lottery Management, which is approved and audited by both the Gambling Commission and PwC.

The computer will select 100 tickets and Christchurch MP Christopher Chope has been invited to draw the winner from that number.