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
1 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.
2 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.
3 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.
4 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.
5 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.
6 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.
7 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.”
8 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.
9 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.