Local man wins dream car and £10,000 cash {{favouriteCount}}

Local man Derek Sene has won a Porsche Cayenne worth £65,495 and £10,000 cash in a UK competition run by BOTB.com.

The company was founded in 1999 and has stands in most of the UK’s major airports and shopping centres, as well as a presence online, where ticket buyers have to ‘spot the ball’ in order to win the car.

Mr Sene, who has just retired from the Gibraltar Port Authority, is the first person in Gibraltar to win the competition.

He had played the game before but had not tried his luck for about seven months, until a twist of fate prompted him to try his hand again.

He had been in Marbella with his wife and parked alongside a Porsche Cayenne.

“That is the car I want,” she told him at the time.

“You never know, one day we may have it,” he replied.

When Mr Sene later saw that BTOB.com was offering that very model of car as a prize, he could not resist.

But he did not expect to win.

 

To add to the excitement, Mr Sene knew nothing of his win until the company turned up on his doorstep yesterday to present him with the car and cash.

Setting this up took days of research and planning by BOTB.com, which tracked down Mr Sene’s son, Nathan, via Facebook and roped him in to help.

“I was at home, as I have just retired, and I saw these two guys walking to the door, one with a camera, and I thought, oh it is a surprise from my son for my retirement,” Mr Sene said.

“I never expected them to tell me I had won this car.”

PR agent Nathan Rous said: “The element of surprise is vital in ensuring the reaction is as wide-eyed as possible, with Will [from the company] and his team spending days researching their winners and plotting the big reveal.”

“Huge amounts of work go into this every two weeks. It’s very cloak and dagger so we have to find out where they live and work and what their movements will be on the day.”

Mr Sene was impressed with how his son kept the secret.

Each winner gets to select the colour and interior of their car.

Mr Sene is opting for white as that is the colour his wife likes.

The Sene family will have celebrations over the coming days as the proud new car owner aims to take them all out for slap up meal.

Back to Homepage 22 Nov 2021