EuroMillions winner spent £40m fortune in eight years
Retired cameraman bought property, cars – and a football club
SCOTLAND’S biggest ever lottery winner spent his fortune at a rate of almost £100,000 a week, new documents have revealed.
Colin Weir scooped a £161million EuroMillions jackpot along with his wife Christine in 2011.
But by the time he died last December, his share of the giant windfall had shrunk by an incredible £40million. One financial expert said: ‘Spending £40million in eight years takes a bit of doing.’
Mr Weir, a former cameraman at STV, followed a familiar lottery winner’s path of buying new cars and investing in his favourite football club.
But the 71-year-old also shared his good fortune widely with friends, charitable institutions and helped set his children up for life.
According to The Mail on Sunday, his newly-published will shows that when he passed away suddenly from sepsis and ‘acute kidney injury’, Mr Weir owned furniture, jewellery and artworks valued at around £212,000.
His garage contained four luxury cars – a vintage Bentley worth £10,000, a £28,250 three-year-old Jaguar F-Pace SUV, a £24,000 fouryear-old Mercedes Benz E Class Estate and a 2019 Mercedes Benz V Class people carrier, valued at around £35,000.
A lifelong supporter of Partick Thistle Football Club, Mr Weir also acquired a 55 per cent shareholding in the company a month before his death so he could donate it to the fans and put its future in the hands of the local community
Sadly, Mr Weir suffered years of ill health and he and his wife, Christine, divorced last summer after 38 years of marriage.
At the time of his death on December 27, he was living in a £1.1million five-bedroomed seafront home in Ayr, which he bought in June 2018 following the end of their relationship. Meanwhile, he signed over sole ownership of Frognal House, near Troon, to Mrs Weir, a former psychiatric nurse with whom he has two adult children, Carly, now 32, and Jamie, 30.
The couple had reportedly bought the home along with its furniture and fittings, after a tenminute viewing four years earlier.
In case of sudden emergencies, he also kept a petty cash box in the property, which contained a handy £263.90.
Papers show his council tax was also £37.08 in credit and, perhaps in hope of another lucky win, he even had the maximum £50,000 invested in National Savings and Investments Premium Bonds.
A long passion for horse racing led him to take part-ownership of three thoroughbreds controlled by syndicates.
These included five-year-old geldings Knighted (worth £2,500) and Felony (£1,675), as well as winning Irish mare If You Say Run (£4,000).
His soft spot, however, was his beloved Partick Thistle FC. A £2.5million investment shortly after his win was followed up later with more financial backing.
Mr Weir, who owned shares worth £272,000 in the Glasgow club, also helped set up the Thistle Weir Youth Academy and a section of Firhill Stadium was named the Colin Weir Stand.
Yesterday, a financial expert said: ‘Spending £40million in eight years takes a bit of doing but it is likely to have mostly gone into setting up trusts for his family and other interests.
‘What he left behind seems to be a very sensible, safe portfolio.’
‘Setting up trusts for his family’