A resident of an affluent Melbourne suburb could be even richer as officials try to find the mysterious winner of a $20 million prize.

Four people across Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia each won a $20 million slice in last night's $80 million Powerball draw.

But one winner is still unaware of their new multi-millionaire status. 

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An unregistered player holds a division one winning ticket purchased at the East Brighton Newsagent in Brighton, Melbourne. 

"That means we don't have any clues to their identity," The Lott's Matt Hart said. 

The man who sold the ticket, East Brighton Newsagent owner Sajjad Sadeghi Goorbandi, believes the winner may be one of his regular customers.

"I wish all the best for them, and for my outlet, for the shop, for the area. It's amazing," he said.

Brighton residents were also excited to hear the winning ticket was purchased in their neighbourhood.

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"I would love to have $20 million," one said.

"You just wouldn't know what to do with yourself, would you?" another said.

"It's amazing. It's so good it's from Brighton," a third said.

Anyone who purchased a ticket to last night's Powerball draw at the East Brighton Newsagent is urged to check their numbers.

The lucky winner can contact The Lott to begin the process of claiming their prize.

A young woman from Woolloongabba in Queensland, a woman from Mooroopna in Victoria, and a winner from Western Australia held the other three division one winning tickets.

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The decision is driven by rising costs and supermarket margin requests, Sealord CEO says.

Rotorua police caught the alleged offenders while they were still on the property.

Customers can only pay via Eftpos and bank transfers. No cash will be accepted.

Allegations of rampant employee underpayment at Coles and Woolworths that affected almost 30,000 staff remain unresolved two years after a lengthy trial.

The Federal Court today handed down a judgment on four cases against the supermarket giants after a watchdog argued there was tacit approval of illegal conduct in many stores.

Woolworths and Coles have repaid $330 million and $7 million respectively to managers who were not properly paid entitlements due to them as salaried employees.

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But the Fair Work Ombudsman and former grocery store employees behind two class actions say the market leaders should be forced to pay more.

The watchdog argued the relevant award set out a 38-hour work week but there was tacit approval to allow people to work overtime regularly.

It claims there were failures in the use of "informal" rosters, time off in lieu and record-keeping on overtime, penalties and allowances.

But Woolworths said some employees were authorised to work up to 45 hours a week and they were not required to do overtime beyond that.

Coles argued managers had autonomy over their hours and the estimates of working hours and days were overestimated by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Justice Nye Perram on Friday found both supermarket chains did not comply with their obligation to keep accurate employment records.

He noted Coles failed to operate an overtime system for managers and its clocking records were unreliable.

One of the lead litigants, who mostly managed the customer service desk, likely worked on days when she was not rostered so roster sheets were not indicative of the hours worked, the judge said.

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Her phone records could better demonstrate when she was at work, the judge found, while dismissing Coles' arguments she had not missed unpaid meal breaks.

The woman, whose pay was docked for Coles-branded clothing, was also entitled to a clothing and laundry allowance.

But the judge used his 82,000-word judgment to criticise all sides, including the Fair Work Ombudsman, for making the case "unacceptably complex".

The parties mainly wanted answers about how the general retail award applied but got bogged down presenting myriad case studies to the court.

The ombudsman's case against Woolworths involved 32 managers at five locations across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane from June 2015 to September 2019. 

The case against Coles involved 42 managers, some of whom were employed in multiple shops, from 2017 to 2020.

"Whilst I would not wish to (be) definitive about how litigation of this kind might be handled in the future, I am confident that they should not be handled the way these four cases were," Justice Perram said. 

"This should not be done again."

He will conduct a case management hearing in October to determine the next steps and compensation for the affected 27,700 employees. 

In a statement, Coles said it hoped Justice Perram's judgment would provide "much-needed clarification" on the industry award and Fair Work Act. 

"We (have) introduced new processes and safeguards to ensure this won't happen again," a spokesperson said.

"We again apologise to our team members who were affected."

Woolworths pointed to the remediation paid to affected employees and said further payments would need to be scrutinised carefully. 

"We are focused on resolving these underpayment issues," chief executive Amanda Bardwell said. 

"We are committed to ensuring that our team members are paid correctly."

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Authorities wanted to take back "life-changing" prizes from trade promotion winners, a lawyer for high-profile businessman Adrian Portelli has told his trial.

Portelli, 36, of Melbourne, has faced a two-day trial in Adelaide Magistrates Court charged with nine counts of conducting or assisting in the conduct of an unlawful lottery in SA, while his business Xclusive Tech Pty Ltd, which trades under the name LMCT+, is charged with 10 counts of the same offence.

The charges, instigated by SA's Consumer and Business Services, allege Portelli's business did not hold a licence to conduct 10 separate lotteries between January 29, 2023 and May 16, 2024.

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The court yesterday viewed videos in which Portelli staged draws for prizes including homes featured on the TV series The Block, luxury cars and boats and cash prizes. 

In each case, the winners were from South Australia. 

Murugan Thangaraj SC, for Portelli, said he was "taken by surprise" by revised information outlined in the prosecution's opening address. 

"We understood from the original information that we were dealing with the standard lottery charge," he said.

"With the revised information, the wording incorporated trade promotion lottery … the prosecution was clearly only about standard lottery and now it says it incorporates both."

He said a key question was "does the revised information clearly include standard lottery and trade promotion?"

In a "cease and desist" letter sent to the company, Thangaraj said "quite an extraordinary position is put by the commissioner: 'I request that you contact any South Australians that have won prizes in the promotion to date to advise that the prize is void, as the operation of the lottery was unlawful'.

"So the commissioner is saying that any South Australian winners have to have their prizes returned … because you didn't have a licence.

"To say that the life-changing impacts on those people, the South Australians, ought to be taken away from them, is the proposition that the commissioner has put."

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Stephanie Wilson, for the liquor and gambling commissioner, said the prosecution accepted Portelli was previously granted trade promotion licences up until a certain point in South Australia but two applications for specific licences were refused by the commissioner in May and June 2021.

"(The prosecution's) position is that these are unlawful lotteries, whether they are trade promotion lotteries or standard lotteries, and whether previous lotteries were licensed or not licensed, is not to the point," she said.

Portelli's company offers members subscriptions to a "rewards club" that includes entries to win cars and properties.

Under South Australian law, any trade promotion lotteries with prizes exceeding $5000 need a licence to operate and entries must be free of charge.

Outside court, Portelli said his company had given back more than $120 million to its customers. 

"There were a lot of companies trying to replicate our business model because they saw the success of it," he said.

"Some people weren't doing the right thing and I think it was easier for them (CBS) to just to pull the plug."

Each of the 19 offences carries a maximum penalty of $10,000.

Portelli has said on social media that if he were convicted, he would "round it up to $200,000".

Magistrate Melanie Burton has reserved her decision.

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Councillor Daniel Newman criticised the violence and called for police action.

Australians wanting to buy their first home are about to find that already-tricky task even more difficult, with house prices set to rise by as much as $154,000 by the end of next year.

Westpac has forecast that dwelling prices will increase by 6 per cent this calendar year before a further 8 per cent hike in 2026, thanks in part to the Reserve Bank's three recent interest rate cuts.

According to Canstar, those increases would see Sydney's median house price rise by a little more than $154,000 between now and the end of next year, taking it up to about $1.67 million.

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"Sydney's median house price could rise by up to $154,000 by the end of next year if house prices rise in line with Westpac's dwelling price forecast," Canstar data insights director Sally Tindall said.

"For those already in the market, that's welcome news for their equity. For those still saving, the deposit hurdle is likely to get a whole lot steeper, not to mention the difficulty in clearing a bank's serviceability test.

Six-figure price rises would also hit Melbourne and Perth if Westpac's forecasts play out, with the Victorian capital joining Brisbane and Sydney in breaking the $1 million median house price barrier.

"Melbourne is shaping up as the comeback city in 2026, with double-digit growth on the cards, according to Westpac," Tindall said. 

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"This could see Melbourne's median house price go above the million-dollar mark, which for many first home buyers will be a psychological barrier that makes it feel like the goal posts keep moving further away."

The forecasts for price rises have been driven by easing interest rates, as well as the chronic undersupply and high demand that has been plaguing Australia for years.

However, while the Reserve Bank is expecting to hand down at least one more cut this year, and potentially another in early 2026, ANZ today warned that the cash rate may be left where it currently stands following stronger-than-expected GDP figures this week.

"If evidence of consumer spending momentum continues and weakness does not emerge in the CPI or labour market data, the RBA may assess the cash rate as broadly neutral with no further cuts needed," the big four bank's head of Australian economics, Adam Boyton, said.

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Tindall said unexpectedly high rates could throw something of a spanner in the housing price works.

"You don't have to look too far back to see how quickly market expectations can change when conditions do," she said.

"The danger is, Australians will borrow to the limit, banking on prices continuing to climb. If circumstances change – whether that's interest rates, job security or the economy – it could leave some households overexposed.

"The more households borrow, the more vulnerable they become to rate rises or shocks to employment."

The information provided on this website is general in nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. The information has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information on this website you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.

A businessman who promised a "pot of gold at the end of a rainbow" is in custody awaiting sentencing after swindling millions of dollars from investors.

Chris Marco was convicted of 43 fraud charges after illegally accepting more than $34 million from six clients and falsely promising healthy returns from investment schemes that did not exist.

The 67-year-old told his victims he was an experienced private investor with exclusive financial opportunities similar to fixed-term deposits, the Western Australian Supreme Court was told.

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But in reality, he was an "illusionist" who used investors' money to pay returns to other clients, prosecutor Steven Whybrow said during the five-week trial.

Marco used word-of-mouth referrals and introductions, and accountants who had spotted the healthy return promises to meet would-be investors.

He took "people to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but there was no pot of gold", Whybrow said.

Corporate regulator Australian Securities and Investments Commission said the verdicts marked the end of a sorry chapter.

"This result delivers justice to investors, who Marco defrauded and speaks to ASIC's painstaking investigation into this complex matter," deputy chair Sarah Court said.

Marco was allegedly given a total of more than $253 million by about 150 people across 327 instances between January 2010 and November 2018.

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But the scheme was a "hungry beast" built on "flimsy foundations" and was "taking on water" because it relied on ever-increasing amounts of investment funds to pay returns, Whybrow said.

By the time investigators froze Marco's accounts, he had just $12 million in cash with $711 million in cumulative guarantees and the scheme would likely have toppled in three to four months, the court was told.

About 78 per cent or $198.5 million of the money Marco collected was returned to investors.

Six per cent was allegedly used to buy motor vehicles and property, eight per cent or about $21 million was transferred to Marco and his family, and four per cent was invested.

Marco's lawyer Luka Margaretic reportedly flagged that the verdicts would be appealed after the verdicts were handed down yesterday.

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Marco's former executive assistant, Linda Marissen, 57, was acquitted of 17 charges of fraud.

Marissen had been charged with 30 fraud offences.

But not guilty verdicts were entered for 13 of these during the trial, because there was insufficient evidence for the jury to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that she had helped Marco commit the frauds, as alleged.

Marco was remanded in custody for sentencing on October 30.

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