AFTER a week of good luck on the horses, a roulette machine and a lottery ticket, bingo fan Stephen Synnott got even luckier.

He scooped a £202,000 win at the Gala Medway bingo club in Strood but split the money with his lifelong friend and bingo partner Nigel Elkington.

His mother received £17,000 from her son’s share of the win. He insists it was only a loan.

But his mother, Hazel, 65, who was widowed in February this year, disputes both the amount her son is taking her to court for and the fact that it was only a loan.

She said: “Stephen was living at home when he won the money and he paid off some of our debts. He also bought his late dad, Kenneth, who was seriously ill, an electric scooter. He never said that it was a loan.”

Stephen Synnott said: “I lent her more than £17,000 and I’m taking her to court because I want it back. I have only just started to work again as a van driver and I want the money back as I don’t have anywhere to live.

“I’m staying with my girlfriend some nights, my friends some nights but most of the time I sleep in my car.

“I am glad that I won the money but I wish that I had spent it differently. I would have moved out of my mum’s house sooner and I wouldn’t have lent her the money.”

Mrs Synnott was left the house she lived in with Stephen after her husband died. She sold the three-bedroom home, in Dart Close, Strood, in June and now lives with her new partner, Mick Newsam, in Stirling Avenue, Borstal, near Rochester.

Mr Synnott has filed his claim for £17,000 at Medway County Court. No date for the hearing has yet been set.