AN Asian help group has scooped a mammoth £190,000 National Lottery jackpot - although its members may never have bought a lottery ticket.

Burnley's Bangladesh Welfare Association is one of the biggest Lottery winners in Lancashire, along with Nelson's Ithaad Pakistani advice group, which collected £124,700 in awards announced today.

But at the BWA which provides help and advice for the 500-strong local Bangladeshi community, development worker, Rina Begun, says the group doesn't buy tickets.

She agreed that although the Muslim community is fundamentally opposed to gambling, the Association had no problem applying for the handout.

"We discussed this and decided it was alright. But we don't buy tickets," she added.

The grants are among £20 million awarded in the North West - the biggest regional winners - announced by the National Lottery Charities Board. The BWA, often criticised in the past for the big council grants it received - will use the cash to develop youth services from its Belford Street headquarters.

Ithadd, operating out of Cross Street, Nelson, serves a much larger community and

will employ development officers over the next three years helping the disadvantaged in the Asian community.

Other local winners in the lottery awards will be Burnley Sea Cadets who get £31,800 to refurbish their Stanley Street HQ over the next year.

Edenfield Playgroup get £21,500 to expand and improve their service.

But Burnley-based Brook Advisory Service, which provides sex education and help to thousands of young people throughout the area are minor winners, collecting just £3,000 from the Lottery.

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