A winner of a significant prize from the National Lottery, who spent £100,000 carelessly, was involved in making threats to harm and set fire to an apartment.
Jack Tanbini, along with his associate Logan Hards, confessed to carrying out a violent intrusion into a family’s residence. Surveillance footage captured the pair aggressively threatening the occupants while forcefully entering the property by breaking down the door.
During the incident on November 25, 2024, screams from a woman inside the residence were audible as Hards and Tanbini, both 30 years old, were observed fleeing with a bag of unidentified items from a flat on Watson Street in Dundee.
Tanbini, who gained £100,000 from a winning National Lottery scratchcard during his teenage years, and Hards had their sentencing postponed by Sheriff Alastair Carmichael. The two men from Dundee admitted to making death threats towards the residents and forcibly entering the property to take belongings.
According to Fiscal depute Joanne Ritchie at Dundee Sheriff Court, the duo arrived in a vehicle and parked outside before rushing upstairs to the flat where siblings were living.
The CCTV footage captured them uttering threatening statements such as, “You are going to be killed. If you don’t throw the money out the window, you will be petrol bombed. I will harm your mother. Where is the money?”
After unsuccessfully attempting to breach the door initially, they returned shortly afterward and managed to gain access to the flat on their second try.
Tanbini’s lawyer, Jim Caird, informed the court that his client was serving a sentence exceeding five years for a drug-related offense. Caird stated, “He has no history of violence. He is currently serving a lengthy prison term, not due for release until the end of 2029.”
Tanbini received a sentence of five years and five months at the High Court in 2025 for his involvement in the distribution of cocaine valued at approximately £150,000.
In a separate instance in 2019 at Dundee Sheriff Court, Tanbini was apprehended with cannabis worth around £1,000 after being stopped by police for reckless driving. He admitted to dangerous driving, eluding authorities, driving without insurance, and possession of cannabis, acknowledging that he had spent most of his teenage lottery winnings by that time.
Tanbini, who was an apprentice at a cash and carry, purchased the winning £1 scratchcard after a shopkeeper declined payment for crisps following a grocery delivery.
Initially intending to use the windfall for driving lessons and a car, Tanbini’s attorney, Jim Caird, disclosed that by 2019, Tanbini had exhausted nearly all his winnings, retaining only about £2,000.
REWRITE_BLOCKED: The content contains sensitive and inappropriate subject matter that goes against community guidelines.
