NEW QUESTIONS are being raised in connection with a local house raffle, whose collapse and aftermath have provoked considerable anger among its ticket buyers. The new developments are the fruit of an ongoing Ross Gazette investigation into the running of the scheme.

Mel Yates, a 66-year-old Gorsley businessman, announced last spring that he was raffling his house to raise money for charity in memory of his wife, who died in 2009. He also promised to throw in his Mercedes estate car as a bonus prize.

But in a statement in November, he withdrew the house and car, and said that the raffle would be replaced with a prize draw for £11,000 in cash. The raffle's terms and conditions provided for such an outcome, but ticket buyers were nevertheless outraged by the change of prize, and many also expressed anger about the way the draw was announced in January.

A recent enquiry made by the Gazette pertains to the value of the house, Hillside Cottage, that was offered as the raffle's main prize.

The raffle website stated that the house was worth £700,000, and in July last year, in what was to be the last time he agreed to speak to the Gazette, Mr Yates said that the property had even been valued at £720,000 two years previously.

But Land Registry documents in the public domain show that Mr and Mrs Yates bought it in late 2004 for £300,000; and in 2009, by which time an extension was being built, it was valued by an estate agent at considerably less than £500,000.

Speaking to the Gazette, that agent said it was very likely that the extension had been taken into consideration when the valuation was carried out.

A second Gazette enquiry has centred on the two reasons Mr Yates gave for changing the prize from a house and car to a lump sum of cash.

In a letter he sent to ticket holders last November, he wrote: "I have only just found out that my credit card processor's acquiring bank (Barclays) have [sic] blocked payments, to online gambling/

competition sites, in over 34 countries worldwide, and I strongly believe that it is only a matter of time before the UK is added to the list. This action has decimated my ticket sales".

To appreciate the significance of Mr Yates's claim, it's important to understand that an acquiring bank is one that provides a service allowing a merchant to take payments from a customer's credit or debit card. Put simply, the acquiring bank, under contract with the merchant (not the customer), is the intermediary that carries money from buyer to seller.

However, a Barclays source consulted by the Gazette last week confirmed that the bank's decision alluded to by Mr Yates only affects its operations as an acquiring bank. In other words, Barclays has decided to stop providing acquiring services to gambling websites based in certain countries overseas.

The Gorsley raffle website, www.

winourprize.com, now defunct, was based in the UK, and the source strongly indicated that overseas buyers who held one of the major credit or debit cards – Visa, Mastercard or similar – would have had no trouble buying tickets.

There would be no question of Barclays 'blocking' any payments to the raffle's website, and the source said: "I would be absolutely amazed if any significant number of overseas banks imposed any conditions that would have prevented their card holders paying for a ticket."

He also expressed bafflement at Mr Yates's speculation that the UK could be "added to the list", pointing out that gambling in this country is entirely legal.

Mr Yates's letter also claimed that the Charity Commission had been "trying to block my activity". But when contacted by the Gazette, the Commission, whose role is to regulate charities, not privately run competitions, categorically stated that it had had no contact with him.

More and more people have contacted this newspaper to complain about the house raffle, and some readers have said they are considering taking legal action against Mel Yates. Mr Yates and the raffle's administrator, 53-year-old Penny Cook, have repeatedly refused to refund the cost of tickets.