UNLUCKY punter George Hollings has been left counting the cost of a double betting blunder.

George, 54, right, should have picked up a cool £1,200 after picking four winners but ended up with just £36.22.

He had waged £20 on England beating Ireland in the rugby clash and also Tyson, Naseem and Welch winning their weekend boxing bouts.

But he forgot to mark the betting slip "roll-up" which meant each win was counted separately instead of being linked together. To add insult to injury, a cashier at the bookies had mistakenly given George 15-2 odds that England would win - the real odds were 1-8.

Unemployed George, 54, of Newton Street, Darwen, said: "I just put the slip in my pocket and walked out of the shop like I always do.

"It says 15-2 on the slip and those are the odds I should have been paid on. I should have had over £1,000 from that £20 bet.

"The bookies have apologised to me and said that the mistake happened because the girl on the counter was busy.

"I really don't know what to do. It's too much hassle to get legal advice. I've asked them to meet me half way and pay me a bit more but they're refusing to budge."

A spokeswoman at Bradlow's bookies in Blackburn Road, Darwen, admitted the mistake but said they were well within their rights.

She said: "We spotted the error almost straight away and I ran after the man to tell him but he had gone.

"It seems the girl who took the bet gave the odds for the Wales match instead of England.

"The rules state that if a staff error is made then we are within our rights to correct the bet and that's what we did."

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