A FIREMAN who won £200,000 on a scratchcard used artificial intelligence bot ChatGPT for legal advice so he could claw back his winnings from his ex-girlfriend.
Dad Craig Titchener, 40, bagged the jackpot on a Winter Wonderlines Lottery card in November 2019.
In 2022 he transferred £40,000 to then-girlfriend, psychiatric nurse Heather Douglass, 37, so she could use her “financial savvy” to invest it for him.
They agreed to buy premium bonds and share any winnings, a court heard.
But when they split she refused to return the money.
Dad of two and Heathrow firefighter Mr Titchener consulted lawyers, but said they quoted “astronomical prices”.
He was about to give up when he turned to ChatGPT, which gave him step-by-step advice to fill in the right forms so he could represent himself at Central London County Court.
Mr Titchener said: “It was a gamble to do it myself, but I thought I’ve got nothing to lose. If it wasn’t for ChatGPT I probably wouldn’t have won.”
Ms Douglass told the court the money was a gift.
She also accused him of being “controlling and harassing”.
District Judge Charlotte Hart found there was “very little evidence” to support her claims.
She failed to prove the £40,000 was a present and did not produce her bank statements so the court ruled in Mr Titchener’s favour last week.
The dad, from Maidenhead, Berks, said the scratchcard win was a “blessing and a curse”.
He added: “Don’t get me wrong, who would turn their nose up at winning that amount of money?
“But, if you make mistakes, be naive, then you’ve got an expensive lesson to learn.”
He said the cash will make a “huge difference” to his and his sons’ lives.
Ms Douglass was asked to comment.