Two homeless French men have caused a legal headache after buying a winning lottery ticket worth more than £400,000 while using a stolen credit card.

In what is a scarcely believable tale, the victim – whose card was used to buy the ticket – has now offered the pair a life changing deal which would see them share the jackpot.

Yet the drama, which occurred earlier this month in the Southern city of Toulouse, has thrown up huge legal concerns with lawyers left unsure who has the rightful claim to the cash.

The thieves stole the credit card after breaking into a car parked in the centre of the city on February 3, taking a backpack containing credit cards and identity documents belonging to a man identified only as Jean-David, say Le Parisien.

After reporting the theft to local authorities and freezing his bank cards, Jean-David, 42, was informed that two men had used one of his cards earlier that day, spending £43.50 at Tabac des Thermes, a newsagents near where his car had been parked.

Keen to recover his personal documents before discovering the pair had purchased the jackpot scratchcard, the 42-year-old visited the shop where he seen the pair on CCTV.

‘I hoped at least to get my papers back but the newsagent said he hadn’t found anything,’ he told police.

‘The newsagent said he remembered the two homeless men aged 30-40 coming into the shop and buying cigarettes and scratchcards. 

Causing a major legal headache, two homeless men bought a winning scratchcard worth more than £400,000 – but legal experts have been left wondering who has the rightful claim to the cash

The thieves stole the credit cards from a backpack within a parked car in the centre of Toulouse (pictured) which belonged to a man identified only as Jean-David, 42

‘He found their behaviour suspicious because they paid with one card then wanted to buy something else but it hadn’t gone through and they couldn’t put in the code.’

After discovering they had won nearly £414,000, the pair returned to the shop to collect their winnings but were told to contact Française des Jeux (FDJ), who run France’s national lottery.

‘The shop owner’s wife said she doubted very much I’d find them because she’d checked the card and they had won €500,000,’ he added.

‘She said they were so happy they even forgot their five packets of cigarettes.’

The 42-year-old has since taken to French radio station, RTL, in an attempt to strike a deal with the thieves. 

The pair returned to the shop to collect their winnings but were told to contact Française des Jeux, who run France’s national lottery

‘Without me, they would not have won, but without them, I would not have bought this ticket. I want to offer them to share the winnings,’ he said.

With Jean-David hoping to use the money to pay off his mortgage worth around £207,000, his lawyer told the BBC that the two men had a ‘miraculous opportunity to build a new life’ if they came to an agreement.

‘My client was very happy to have his credit card stolen in these circumstances and so is not looking to prosecute,’ the lawyer said.

‘This is also a miraculous opportunity for these two men to build a new life for themselves.’

Despite the attempts to get the men to come forward, the deadline to collect the winnings is March 5, meaning time is running out for all three to split the money.

Meanwhile, police in Toulouse saying FDJ has frozen the winning ticket while investigations continue.