A RESTAURANT boss has been ordered to share a £1m Euromillions jackpot with one of his former waiters.

Fatih Ozcan, who worked in the Turkish restaurant, told the High Court he had dreamt on January 29, 2012 that he was holding a large bundle of cash and, standing in front of him, was his boss, Hayati Kucukkoylu.

The seven-day hearing heard that Mr Ozcan spent three hours the following day pestering his boss at the family-run Kapadokya restaurant, in George Hudson Street, York, to enter the Euromillions lottery, before going to a supermarket and buying a ticket.

When Mr Kucukkoylu, 47, heard the numbers had come up, there were celebrations in the restaurant and he claimed to be the sole winner, saying the stake had come from the restaurant's till and he alone had chosen the winning numbers.

The court was shown CCTV footage, which suggested both shared the task of choosing the winning numbers and each had paid half of the £9 stake.

Fearing Mr Kucukkoylu would take his share, the waiter phoned Camelot and the police, accusing his boss of stealing the winning ticket from his pocket.

Mr Kucukkoylu was arrested in the restaurant and held in police custody for nine hours.

Mr Ozcan later admitted he had lied but said his boss had threatened him and he was "fearful for his safety".

Judge Mark Gosnell described it as a "troubling case", and said while Mr Ozcan was an admitted liar, he also had concerns about the reliability of Mr Kucukkoylu's account.

He ruled the pair were entitled to £500,000 each.

Judge Gosnell said: "Mr Ozcan is a strong believer in the power of dreams and interpreted this to mean that he and Mr Kucukkoylu would win the lottery.

"It is much more likely that he would badger his employer for hours if his dream was that they had played together and he needed his employer to play for the dream to come true.

"I cannot see why he would be so determined to make his employer play if he was not directly to benefit."