A former convenience store owner has pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining a $5.7-million lottery prize. A former convenience store owner has pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining a $5.7-million lottery prize. (CBC)

A former convenience store owner pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing a winning lottery ticket and fraudulently claiming $5.7 million in prize money.

Ontario Provincial Police charged Hafiz Zulqarnain Malik, 60, of Mississauga, Ont., two years ago with two counts of fraud and one count of theft.

Additionally, about $5 million worth of his assets were seized or frozen by police, including his Mississauga home, bank and investment accounts and three vehicles.

In an agreed statement of fact, Malik admitted he tricked a customer into giving him the 6/49 ticket after telling the customer it was worthless.

Malik was operating a convenience store near Dufferin Street and Dupont Avenue in Toronto when he stole the ticket which belonged to a group of four Toronto co-workers in June 2004.

He cashed it six months later, in January 2005, and went on a buying spree.

The charges were the result of an investigation launched in July 2008, following a complaint to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

The charges against Malik were part of an OPP investigation into so-called insider wins between 1999 and 2006.

Malik will be sentenced on March 16 and could face up to 10 years in prison.

The rightful winners were eventually given their lottery prize cash, plus interest of $788,000.