A News & Star reader said he 'couldn't believe it' after winning a £250 shopping voucher by entering the daily newspaper's token competition. 

Paul Grindley won the £250 voucher that could be spent shopping on the Carlisle high street by collecting 10 of the 12 tokens that were printed in editions of the News & Star in August.

Paul, who is also an active member of the News & Star's Camera Club, was in disbelief and being told that he won the competition.

With the voucher that he won by collecting the printed tokens, Paul was able to treat himself to a few items for his home and get a head start on his Christmas shopping. 

Paul said: "To be honest I couldn’t believe it. I was having my lunch at work when I saw the e-mail and I thought it was some sort of phishing scam or something. I was sitting next to a good friend and I asked her to have a look at my phone and she read it and said it did say what I thought it did.

"Being a keen amateur photographer, I send a lot of photographs to the Camera Club and also to the news desk, so I always buy a paper every day, so I was buying the paper anyway so it only costs the price of the stamp to have a go at winning the prize."

After winning the News & Star's high street shopping voucher competition, Paul was keen to encourage other readers to have a go at winning their own prize. 

He said: "I would certainly encourage readers to get involved.

"If you are buying the paper anyway it is just going to cost the price of a stamp and it is probably better odds of winning than the lottery and the stamp is cheaper than a lottery ticket."