WHEEL OF FORTUNE
Jackpot January has already seen the first new Lottery millionaires of the year. Marion McMullen looks at some of the UK’s biggest winners
UNEMPLOYED Welsh mechanic Les Scadding was £68 overdrawn on his bank when he and his wife bought one of two winning tickets which shared a £90m jackpot 10 years ago. The other £45m EuroMillions ticket was won by a syndicate of seven IT workers. They were nicknamed the Magnificent Seven.
THE Connollys are the fourth biggest UK winners and the biggest from Northern Ireland. Colin and Chris Weir, below, from Ayrshire, became the biggest Lottery winners in the UK – and across Europe – when they won more than £161m in 2011. They made a million pound donation to the SNP shortly after winning.
ADRIAN and Gillian Bayford, below, from Suffolk, took home more than £148m in August, 2012, but parted a year later announcing they were getting a divorce. The couple were the only winners of the EuroMillions lottery after the jackpot had rolled over 14 times.
NEIL Trotter, from south London, won nearly £108m, going from former car mechanic to multimillionaire in March,
2014. He had predicted he would be a multi-millionaire “this time tomorrow” just hours before he won the jackpot. He told staff at his father’s office on the day of the draw that he was feeling lucky. FRANCES and Patrick Connolly, left, are the first Lottery winners of 2019 after scooping the £115m EuroMillions jackpot. The Northern Irish couple, who have been together for 30 years, have three grown-up daughters and three grandchildren and say they plan to share their good fortune with loved ones.
CAMBRIDGESHIRE couple Dave and Angela Dawes won more than £101m on only their third go on the EuroMillions draw in October, 2011. Mr Dawes said he “didn’t sleep a wink” the night of the win as it was too late to call organisers Camelot after the couple checked their numbers. They were sharing a £70-a-week one-bedroomed flat before the win.
ANDREW CLARK of Boston, Lincolnshire, was revealed as the owner of Britain’s biggest ever unclaimed lottery ticket in December 2018. The self-employed builder, who had a habit of stockpiling tickets in his van, only discovered he had won £76m when his partner’s niece reminded him to check his tickets. Stunned, he called his partner and said: “Start looking for a mansion.”
SYNDICATES are among the biggest winners. Eleven Tesco workers from Driffield in Yorkshire won just over £18m in the Lotto jackpot in 2005. They bought the winning ticket from the store where they all worked. They all resigned their jobs within a week of winning to let unemployed people have their old roles.
A bus drivers’ syndicate from Corby, Northants, scooped £38m on the EuroMillions lottery in 2012. The 12 Stagecoach drivers each took home just over £3m and most immediately quit their old jobs.
10 THE biggest prize awarded in the UK in the last year was £121m and was won last April. However, the winner chose to remain anonymous. An unnamed ticket holder also claimed just over £113m in October 2010, but chose not to go public.