Local News in Brief : Counterfeit Lottery Ticket Was a Loser

Adeaf woman was sentenced Monday to a year on probation and 30 hours of community service for trying to collect $3,725 with a bogus lottery ticket.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Howard J. Schwab imposed the sentence on Gulhan Kamile Kutlu in the March 30, 1987, incident.

Kutlu, a naturalized citizen from Turkey who lives in North Hollywood, pleaded guilty March 28 to presenting a fraudulent pick-six ticket at the state lottery office in Sylmar.

Lottery officials’ suspicions were aroused by the appearance of the ticket, so they examined it under a microscope and discovered it had been forged, said Harold S. Lynn, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney. Kutlu was then arrested, he said.

In a plea bargain, the district attorney’s office agreed to the probated sentence in exchange for Kutlu’s guilty plea.

“She has no prior record, and she’s deaf and she didn’t get anything, so there is no loss,” Lynn said.

Kutlu maintained that she was given the lottery ticket by a roommate and believed it was real, according to the probation report. Kutlu, believed to have been born deaf and mute, receives Social Security benefits of $566 per month because of her disability, according to the report.