A lottery winner in the north of Scotland has lost out on a £3.6million jackpot after failing to claim the huge prize by Monday's deadline.

No-one came forward with the winning ticket before the deadline at 5.30pm, which means the money, plus all the interest it has generated, will go towards lottery grants.

The ticket, which was bought in the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey area, matched all six numbers in the draw on September 23, 2009.

A National Lottery spokesman said: “Unfortunately, I can confirm that the ticket-holder did not come forward within the deadline to claim their prize and has now sadly missed out on this substantial amount of money. To avoid this unfortunate situation happening again, I would urge all National Lottery players to check their tickets on a regular basis.

“We tried very hard to find the ticket-holder and it’s a real shame that they have missed out, but there is still one winner – the nation. This money will now go to the Good Causes, adding to the £24billion given over the last 15 years.” 

The winning Lotto numbers on that date were 23, 25, 28, 41, 46 and 47.

The National Lottery Good Causes programme gives grants to projects across the UK.