A cheeky Lotto punter has tried his luck with Camelot by claiming he won £250,000 on a scratchcard - but it was damaged. 

Jonny Smith has become a viral hit after sharing his outrageous tale on The National Lottery Facebook page. 

Glasgow Times:

He posted: "Hi National Lottery! I bought this scratchcard recently and as you can clearly see I have revealed three £250,000 figures in the end column meaning I should be able to start shopping at Waitrose in the near future.

"Unfortunately both bar codes on the reverse side have been removed by a small fire. This completely accidental inferno has also damaged the game number on the front side."

He added: "I may also add that due to my clumsyness, in a completely seperate incident I have also spilt pen ink on the other identifying number in the game column. Just my bloody luck eh!?

"Just to conclude, if you dont mind sending me a direct message to confirm that this is a winner I would be more than happy to pass on my postal address so you can send me my winners cheque."

The post has attracted thousands of comments, likes and shares - and even a response from The National Lottery.

Glasgow Times:

The National Lottery posted: "Thank you for you query.

"We have investigated this image for you, we can tell that the 'small fire' that the scratchcard was involved with, was very selective and clearly didn't like the barcodes, we suggest that you completely fire proof your home to avoid such instances from happening again. 

"It may also be handy if you no longer use ink pens and buy pencils from now on to avoid another ink spillage. 

"Furthermore, looking at the image very closely it has come to our attention that the extra £250,000 on the top right hand corner has been placed carefully, however we recommend that you invest in some proper glue. 

"To conclude, we won't be sending you a direct message requesting your details as this won't be necessary, we would like to thank you for your time to contact us, we wish you every success in the future with our games - and maybe, just maybe one day you will be able to shop at Waitrose. 

"If you are unhappy with the outcome you can email us on: thisisnotawin@national-lottery.co.uk for further investigation."

Many Facebook users left comments on the exchange.

A friend of Jonny's, Sarah Briggs, joked: "Keeping my fingers crossed for you Jonny! Hopefully they will be able to see that this is an original card that has clearly just been through devastating events."

Nicola Barratt joined in, writing: "To everyone saying 'it's obviously tampered with'... You should work for MI5. Your intellect is outstanding..."