I’M THE MAN WHO NEARLY LOST £76 M
Builder, 51, left winning ticket in van for six weeks
A BUILDER told yesterday how he was nearly “the man who lost £76million” after stashing the winning ticket in his van for six weeks.
Lucky Andrew Clark, 51, bought the Euromillions ticket, then tucked it loosely behind the sun visor. And it was thanks to his girlfriend Trisha Fairhurst who urged him to check the numbers that he realised
he was a rich man. The ticket was among a bundle he had stashed in his work vehicle. Andrew said: “The ticket was in the van behind my sun visor. It was not really safe. I’ve had them blow out the window before. “Luckily, this one didn’t.”
In the six weeks it took him to check, his colossal £76,369,806 win would have earned around £130,000 in current account interest alone.
The National Lottery launched a frantic search for the winner after identifying where it was bought.
They deployed mobile hoardings around Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire to encourage the winner to come forward, and even enlisted Boston town crier Steve O’Dare to spread the news.
Meanwhile, the divorced father-oftwo was being nagged by Trisha, 51, to see if he had won.
The 12th biggest winner in UK history said: “Trisha kept telling me to check the tickets, and her niece Louise, who I was building an extension for, was also in on it once she’d heard about the unclaimed prize in the news.
“It was something of a standing joke that I had all these tickets while there was a local prize outstanding.”
After realising his numbers had hit the jackpot he rang Trisha and told her: “Start looking for a mansion.”
Trisha said: “I’d just got back from work and was settling in for a quiet evening when Andrew called and said, ‘You know that £76million, well I’ve just won it.’ Obviously I didn’t believe a word of it. Even when my niece came on the phone to say it was true I still couldn’t take it in.
Magical
“It started to seem real when he called back and said, ‘Honestly, it’s real, so start looking for a mansion.’
“Bang went my quiet evening – I didn’t sleep a wink!”
Yesterday the grandfather-of-three, who picked up the winning ticket in Eastwood Road Post Office in Boston, said: “It almost feels like some magical Christmas story, the man who nearly lost £76million.”
Andrew toasted his big win with a sausage and egg McMuffin from McDonald’s – and splashed out an extra 30p to make the £2.29 treat a double.
He added: “I don’t check them every week and just stuck to my normal routine. They give you 180 days to claim. I check them halfway through – make them sweat!
“The moment I realised, I was stunned. I could not believe it. It was a hell of a moment.”
Andrew, from Boston, found out about his mammoth win on Thursday last week and kept things quiet until the couple announced themselves at a press conference yesterday.
And they confessed that they had already splashed out on a house, a Mercedes-Benz AMG C 63 and a Nissan Qashqai.
Andrew added: “On Monday we went and bought a new car for Trisha.
“We said we wanted to pay for this car and just take it away. He said, ‘Oh, are you our £76million lottery winners?’ We said, ‘No.’ That was funny. Then we started to look around for a house and have had an offer accepted.
“We have not gone too extravagant. It’s a nice larger family home.”
The couple say this Christmas will be a quiet affair – staying in the UK, with dinner in a restaurant in Skegness on New Year’s Eve.
However, Andrew promises that “next year will be a different story”.
The new multi-millionaire says he will now retire from his building business and stick to projects for himself.
For Trisha, who met Andrew four years ago through an online dating service, the win has special significance. Their life-changing win will secure the future of her 14-year-old disabled daughter.
Trisha, who has no immediate plans to give up her job as a catering assistant at Boston Pilgrim Hospital, said: “This will set her up for life. I can give her private residential care.”
Andrew added: “She will be able to live with her friends so she can enjoy life. At home she is stuck with us. She is always happiest when she is with her friends.
“She has struggled to live independently but with the right help hopefully she can live with some help alone.
“The whole family will be looked after, well looked after. They won’t want for anything. My sister was under the threat of redundancy, so she is well happy.
“Trisha’s sister’s mortgage will be paid off. She is slightly older and was a little bit worried about that.
“Everyone is just over the moon. It’s made their day.’’
SEASONAL good cheer will be felt by Andrew Clark, 51, of Boston, Lincs, perhaps more than anybody else in the country. To discover winning lottery numbers for £76million in a stash of tickets in his van must have been a remarkable moment for the builder. We are sure everybody wishes him all the best and that he can now enjoy a leisurely life.