Dad’s visit to city leaves him a hap-pea millionaire

A DAD of three visited Cardiff for a day out – and left £1m richer.

William Richards, 32, was visiting the city to attend Comic Con when his wife asked him to buy a box of mushy peas as they’d run out.

Self-employed William, 32, was on his way back from the event on Saturday, May 12, when his wife asked him to run the errand to complete their roast dinner.

He stopped at Asda in Cardiff Bay and treated himself to five lucky dip tickets.

William, from Birchgrove in Swansea, said: “I bought my lottery tickets because I found myself somewhere I wouldn’t normally have been and took that as a sign.

“I didn’t think about them again until I was working on a Sunday afternoon. I scanned the results on my app and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that I’d matched the Lotto Millionaire Raffle code and won £1m.”

At first William didn’t realise he had won the money and thought instead he had just won a lucky dip that could potentially win him £1m.

Camelot managed to confirm the win straight away over the phone but William waited seven hours until he was hometo tell his wife they were now millionaires.

Delighted Sophie said: “I knew something was up as he was telling me with tears in his eyes but I still couldn’t believe it.”

Sophie, 25, had spent the day looking after their three children and was stunned when her husband returned home to tell her the good news.

The couple, who met while working at Asda, have been married for four years and run their own business called Toys and Masks. They are hoping the windfall will provide them with security.

William said: “We aren’t in a rush to spend the money – we want to cherish it and take our time to build a future for our family. The business has been growing steadily but this win really takes all the stress out of it.

“Not having to worry about our mortgage is such a weight off our minds and now we can relax a bit and enjoy running the business spending time with our kids.”

However there are two trips the family are planning to treat themselves with. The couple plan to take their three young children to DisneyWorld in Florida next year and William wants to spend some money going to see WrestleMania.

He said: “I would really like to go and watch WrestleMania. I’ve been a fan of wrestling since I was little and have always wanted to see it live. It’s in New York next year so it might be my chance.” and