£148m lottery winner evicts disabled friend
... after putting up her rent by 50%
A LOTTO winner who scooped £148million on the Euromillions has evicted his disabled friend after increasing her rent by 50 per cent.
Adrian Bayford allegedly told Kym Mills ‘it’s business’ when she was left homeless and unable to pay the £750 a month to live in an outbuilding on his sprawling estate.
Mrs Mills had reportedly been renting the house for £500 a month and worked as a cleaner on the premises after coming to an agreement with Mr Bayford’s ex-wife Gillian, 43.
Mrs Bayford, a former healthcare assistant now engaged to a car dealer, agreed to the discounted rate before splitting with her husband 15 months after their windfall in 2012.
Mrs Mills, 54, and the Bayfords became close when they owned neighbouring shops before the couple became overnight multimillionaires. At the time, Mrs Mills claimed, Mrs Bayford, originally from Dundee, had said money was ‘something to share with people that need help, people that have helped us’.
But things turned sour when Mr Bayford, 46, who now lives with a girlfriend 16 years his junior at the £6million Cambridgeshire mansion, accused Mrs Mills of ‘giving away’ his belongings. After the couple decided to shut down their Cambridgeshire farm shop and purchase another property in Norfolk, Mrs Mills agreed to sell excess stock on their behalf. Mr Bayford later claimed she gave some of this away.
Mrs Mills told yesterday how her friendship with Mr Bayford had been ruined, adding that she wished the couple had never won the Euromillions.
She said: ‘I’m just hurt – they were my best friends. And at the end of the day they’ve got it all and I’ve lost everything. I wish none of this had ever happened.
‘Life was so much simpler before. This money split my friends up and ruined the relationship we had. I’ve got stuck in the middle of it and it’s not fair.’ Mrs Mills, who suffers from epilepsy and a spine condition, had known the Bayfords since 2009.
Mrs Mills’ daughter, Keera, 23, who lives with her mother, described how they even spent Christmas with Mr Bayford: ‘It was like an extended family.’
But in June they received a letter informing them that the rent on their home would increase by £250 a month – despite the fact Mrs Mills was paid £8 an hour as a cleaner for Mr Bayford.
Keera told the Sunday Mirror: ‘He knows Mum can’t afford £750 a month – he’s the one paying her. I work in a pharmacy down the road and we just can’t afford that much.
‘We tried to challenge it, but next thing we knew he sent us an eviction notice.’
The pair have now been left homeless and are staying with friends while Mr Bayford is reportedly building a swimming pool yards from their old home.
Defending his decisions, Mr Bayford accused his former friend of giving ‘stuff away for free’, adding: ‘I took them out for meals, they came out with me for drinks. I treated them like family and they’re doing this to me.’
He described himself as ‘fair’, adding: ‘They thought they were here for life, but things happen, things move on. It’s a business. Some people don’t realise how lucky they are.
‘It costs money to run an estate like this… I’m not a charity.’