THE organisers of the £3m mega home raffle have said they will file the accounts "in line with statutory requirements.”

But it is not clear if they will actually publish a full breakdown of the costs.

Yesterday the Echo revealed that the administration and publicity costs could have been as much as £600,000, based on the general figures released.

Around 30,000 tickets at £25 each were sold - not enough under the rules to trigger the house as a prize or an Aston Martin.

The competition therefore took in about £750,000 and the prize winner, Carina Alcock from Christchurch, took away £110,000.

The rules also stated that any replacement cash prize would amount to 75 per cent of the value of the tickets sold, after promotion costs - which therefore look to have been around £600,000.

House owner Mark Beresford said: “We fully complied with all of the competition rules and relevant laws in order to launch the competition.

“We calculated the prize exactly as described in the terms and conditions, which all entrants had to accept.

“We have spent huge sums of money on advertising that failed to cover its costs.

“The costs incurred were very high and began in 2016 with extensive legal advice and opinions about the interpretation of the rules covering prize draw competitions.

“By the time the competition was launched, costs were already into six figures - to do this properly is neither cheap nor for the faint of heart.

"We will file the accounts in line with statutory requirements."