Businessman dating woman behind company he blamed for prize draw fail

EXCLUSIVE – Revealed: Owner of £2million mansion in Win My Home prize draw is DATING glamorous Ukrainian businesswoman, 29, whose firm he blamed for ‘winner’ being handed just £5k instead of a mansion

• Winner Loretta, 35, said she was heartbroken as she hoped to ‘escape’ her home
• Owner said ‘What happened is not my fault, and £5,000 is still a lot of money’ 

A businessman at the centre of an aborted luxury home prize draw, which left a newlywed schoolteacher’s dreams of owning the property in tatters, is dating the woman whose company he blamed for the competition ending in controversy, MailOnline can reveal.

Elliot Andrew, 36, claimed his £2 million mansion could not be handed over to the competition winner because organisers Win My Home failed to sell enough tickets.

But it can now be revealed that Mr Andrew is in a relationship with 29-year-old Yevheniia Levytska – the sole director of the company which ran the ill-fated contest.

The couple, who have been together since at least 2018, enjoy a jet set lifestyle heading off on romantic getaways to some of the world’s most desirable holiday locations – including stays at a five-star hotel on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy and the Alpine ski resort of Courmayeur.

Ukrainian-born Yevheniia – who is known as Genia – who refers to Mr Elliott as ‘hubby’, has posted dozens of images of her glamorous lifestyle on social media platform Instagram.

Businessman Elliot Andrew (right) is at the centre of an aborted luxury home prize draw and is dating Yevheniia Levytska (left) whose company he blamed for the competition ending in controversy

Property owner Elliot Andrew is in a relationship with 29-year-old Yevheniia Levytska – the sole director of the company which ran the ill-fated contest

Ukrainian-born Yevheniia – who is known as Genia – has posted dozens of images of her glamorous lifestyle on social media platform Instagram

Earlier this month she put up photographs of the couple embracing by a fountain in the garden at Mr Andrew’s property – with the romantic pics accompanied by emojis of a smiling face with heart shaped eyes.

READ MORE: How the Win My Home luxury prize draw REALLY works – after raffle devastated newly-wed schoolteacher who ‘won’ £2million mansion but ‘was given just £5,000’

It is one of a series of images which show Ms Levytska enjoying the opulent surroundings of the smart six bedroomed townhouse in Nottingham.

Other images feature Ms Levytska on a break in Malta while she also enjoyed visits to London and Bath as well as trips back to Ukraine.

In May the couple posed for photos at the Luton Hoo Hotel Golf and Spa resort – a magnificent former stately home in Bedfordshire.

Ms Levytska told how she was celebrating her birthday in the ‘castle-like’ surroundings and posted a love heart accompanied by the caption ‘5.5 years’ as she posed in one photo with Mr Andrew.

The couple posed at the Nottingham home just days after a devastated schoolteacher just learned she would not be the new owner of the regency mansion which was up for grabs in the draw.

After being announced as the grand winner it later emerged that the teacher, whose first name is Loretta, had been given just £5,000.

Loretta, 35, told how she was heartbroken as she had entered the competition in the hope of escaping her ‘death-trap’ home which was ridden with mould.

Loretta, 35, (left) was announced as the winner of a £2million mansion for a Win My Home competition, but said she instead received £5,000. Pictured: Loretta being told she had won the prize 

The property’s owner Elliot Andrew (pictured) put the luxury Nottingham home (pictured) up for auction 

The revelations come after recruitment consultant Mr Andrew insisted he had nothing to do with the competition and blamed organisers for the fiasco.

READ MORE: The truth about winning the Omaze ‘dream’: How ten of the 14 that have been won were put up for sale by the new owners (and one of those remaining is rented out to wealthy Airbnb customers)

He said: ‘I am disappointed that I am being portrayed as the organiser, and that it was my personal endeavour, and that I have ripped people off.

‘If sales targets for the competition had been reached my house would have been sold for a minimum of £2million with legal fees and stamp duty but they were not and the winner, through no fault of mine, did not get the house but a much smaller cash prize.’

Land registry records show Mr Andrew bought the house in 2019 for £1million – half the value trumpeted by Win My Home.

However, Mr Andrew says he personally refurbished every room in the house and added a range of features including the courtyard fountain

MailOnline discovered that when Win My Home Ltd was inaugurated by Ms Levytska in February of this year it registered Mr Andrew’s mansion as its primary trading address.

This was later changed in March to an address in Great Portland Street, London, but the original listing at his address in Nottingham – remains on file at Companies House.

Mr Andrew is still to respond to requests for comment on the issues, but had said he was approached by competition organisers after they had seen it on rental websites including Airbnb and his personal Instagram.

In May the couple posed for photos at the Luton Hoo Hotel Golf and Spa resort – a magnificent former stately home in Bedfordshire

Mr Andrew said: ‘I run the house as a holiday let and to TV and film companies. It had been on the market last summer and I had a sale for £2.2million but it fell through.

‘When Win My Home made contact, I offered it as a raffle prize with the organisers intending to buy the property if they reached their target.

‘It was their fault they did not reach it, not mine.

‘I had seen their ads for the competition all over social media and flagged with companies and they had spent many thousands of pounds, and I do not doubt they had made a good attempt to reach their target.

‘I would not have engaged in the process if there had been any risk on my side, everything checked out and I had taken legal advice.’

Ms Levytska is a fashion designer and business student.

According to her LinkedIn page Ms Levytska has been a program co-ordinater at Oxford Business College, which has a campus in Nottingham, since June 2022.

Among her previous roles Ms Levytska – who has a masters degree in Higher Education from Kyiv International University – was director of business development at Kaizen Interims from August 2018 to September 2021.

The debacle began after Win My Home launched the competition in March this year  

The prize draw, which ran between March and August, offered the chance to win a six-bedroom four-storey villa (pictured) 

The recruitment firm – registered at a different address in Great Portland Street – was set up by Mr Andrew who was managing director.

Companies House records show the firm was dissolved via ‘compulsory strike off’ in November 2019.

Mr Andrew rents the 200-year-old Grade II-listed villa, which is set in a private estate near the city centre, for at least two weeks of each month for a minimum of £1,500 a night.

The property is used for TV and film location shoots and has featured in Channel 4’s Come Dine With Me as well as being the backdrop for an up and coming rapper’s video.

It also hosts weddings and private dining events as well as being rented out to holidaymakers.

Mr Andrew said that he stays with friends and in hotels, or goes travelling, while the property is occupied stating: ‘I don’t want it as my main home as it is too big a space for me!’

He said he had put the house on the market last year but withdrew it after an offer of £2.2 million fell through.

The debacle began after Win My Home launched the competition in March.

Loretta said she was devastated to be told afterwards that she would not be getting the house and instead receiving £5,000

The prize draw ran until August with a range of ticket bundles available from £10 for 15 entries to £350 for 1,000 entries.

At the end of the contest a video was released showing a woman approach Loretta’s home with a bunch of flowers before telling her: ‘You’re the winner of our Nottingham prize draw’ – without clarifying what she had won.

It later emerged she would be receiving the small cash prize after organisers said they failed to make enough money from the competition.

Terms and conditions listed on the draw’s website stated that if £2.5million of net sales were not reached then the winner will receive 50 per cent of the net proceeds.

Organisers said they had made a loss running the competition and had handed the cash over as a ‘goodwill gesture’.

They said they had spent nearly £200,000 on ‘marketing costs’ and claimed the competition was hampered because Visa payments could ‘not be processed for a long time’.

Responding to Loretta and her husband about her concerns by email, Win My Home said: ‘The amount that we have awarded actually came from our own personal pockets because we wanted to award you something as a goodwill gesture and hoped that it would make a positive difference to your lives.

‘The alternative was awarding nothing which we would obviously not have felt great about.’

The  couple  enjoy a jet set lifestyle heading off on romantic getaways to some of the world’s most desirable holiday locations

Ukrainian-born Yevheniia – who is known as Genia – has posted dozens of images of her glamorous lifestyle on social media platform Instagram

It added that the financial issues it had faced on the draw had been resolved and said ‘there’s a great chance that the next draw will be a huge success’.

Of the home’s would-be winner, Mr Andrew said he had hoped the prize would be achieved because the house would be sold to a family needing it.

He explained that when the organiser’s target was not reached, he felt ‘some sympathy’ for Loretta, whom he had never met, but had tried ‘to reach out to her’.

He told MailOnline: ‘There was no obligation but I tried to get involved personally. I had heard that Loretta was starting up a new catering business and I proposed through the organisers that we could work together, moving forwards, with her using my house for private dining and corporate events but she never got in touch.’

He insisted Loretta had ended up doing well out of the competition adding: ‘I heard she spent £10 on an entry on the final weekend and she got £5,000.

‘If I got that I would be quite happy. I try to put myself in her shoes. What happened is not my fault, and £5,000 is still a lot of money.’

He insisted the terms and conditions on the competition page had been made crystal clear saying there was ‘no confusing loophole.’

He added: ‘Even more annoying, this was not a money-spinner for me. Online trolls are saying I made enough from the raffle but there was not a penny for me. But I’m not annoyed with the company, they gave it their best shot.

‘At the end of the day I didn’t lose anything. At the start it was potentially a bit of a win, win for me because I would get an amount for my property and all the marketing the company was proposing to do.

‘I didn’t sell my place, and it is not up for sale now, but it did attract more responses through marketing and it is continuing to be rented out.’

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