And finally… away and raffle

Susan DeVere set up the contest after she failed to sell Orchardton Castle, near Auchencairn, Kirkcudbrightshire.

But when ticket sales were too low she changed the prize to cash giveaways of £65,000, £7,000 and £5,000.

One disgruntled participant complained the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the authority has found that the change meant the competition was not “administered fairly”.

The ruling was disputed by Mrs DeVere who said she made the possibility of a cash prize clear.

The competition saw tickets costing £5 offered via Facebook and winacastle.co.uk, with the winner promised the opportunity to “win the whole building freehold”.

Built in the 1880s, the 17-bedroom property had been valued at between £1.5m and £2.5m and comes with five acres of land and views across the Solway Firth.

Mrs DeVere, who said that she had not made any money from the competition, told the ASA that all property competitions were run in the same way and the castle could not be awarded if there were not enough entries received to clear the mortgage.

She said it was made clear from the beginning that if not enough entries were received, the property would not be awarded and a cash prize would be offered instead.

Mrs DeVere added that after the prize draw had taken place the winner was offered a share of the property and a chance to run a business there had they wanted to, which was a goodwill offer unconnected to the competition. The winner chose to accept the cash prize.

The ASA said the complainant had entered the promotion in the hope of winning the castle.

It said: “We understood that at the end of the competition three cash prizes were awarded at the value of £65,000, £7,000 and £5,000 instead of the advertised prize, because the minimum number of entries had not been reached, and that the advertiser had offered the winner a share of the property.
“However, we considered that a share of the property or any cash alternative that was less than the value of the property, were not reasonable equivalents to the prize as advertised.

“Because neither the advertised prize nor a reasonable alternative had been awarded, we concluded that the promotion had not been administered fairly and was in breach of the code.”

Mrs DeVere told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme that she planned to appeal against the ruling because it “doesn’t make any sense”.

“It wasn’t unfair. We did absolutely everything to make it as fair and transparent as possible,” she said.

“Right from the beginning, on our website it said that if enough entries didn’t come in then it would be a cash prize.

“We actually gave examples of what the cash prizes would be.”