Jake had a pint after £10m win

LOTTO: Ex-Saint thought he had won £10,000 but will now buy holiday home

A former St Johnstone player who scooped an incredible £10 million Lotto win had to be told by a friend it was not just £10,000.

Tayside ladder maker Jake Bowman plans to buy a holiday home, visit Monaco for the Grand Prix and travel around Europe following his massive windfall.

But after checking his numbers following Saturday night’s Lotto draw, he initially thought he had won just five figures. It was not until he showed a pal his ticket that he learned the true scale of his new fortune.

“My first drink as a millionaire was still a pint of beer,” said Mr Bowman, adding: “The first thing I did was to look after my daughters.”

The Angus man who scooped a sensational £10 million National Lottery jackpot is “ecstatic” with his win.

Jake Bowman from Forfar checked his numbers in a local pub following Saturday night’s draw.

And he was “very surprised” to discover that he was the UK’s sole jackpot winner and had won £10,317,199 by matching all six numbers.

The 59-year-old father of two announced the win at a press conference in the five-star Mar Hall hotel near Glasgow.

He conceded that the win was Forfar’s “worst kept secret” and he decided to go public after some soul-searching.

Rumours of Mr Bowman’s win had swept Forfar since Saturday, when he exclaimed he had won something in the Old Mason’s Arms pub.

However, he initially believed he had won £10,000, and only realised the scope of his win long after buying a round for everyone in the bar.

He will not return to his job at one of the town’s major employers, Ramsay Ladders, saying he had worked “long enough”.

“I’m coming up for 60 now and that’s it,” he said.

Speaking at the Edwardian hotel in Bishopton, Mr Bowman added: “I checked my numbers on the Sunday morning. I had a bit of a fuzzy head and thought I’d won £10,000.

“I went over to a friend’s so he could double check it for me and when he looked it up on his phone he realised it was actually 1,000 times that amount.”

Mr Bowman said it was “too early to tell” whether he will move, but said he might relocate to a pad between his daughters in Dundee and Edinburgh.

His daughter Emma, 26, joked: “I feel like I need a holiday after all this, to be honest.”

Mr Bowman bought his ticket at RS McColl on East High Street.

I’m coming up for 60 now and that’s it. JAKE BOWMAN

Picture: SWNS. Mr Bowman continues the celebrations yesterday.

Pictures: SWNS. Jake Bowman, with daughter Emma, speaks to the media following his £10m lottery win and, right, they raise a glass to their good fortune. Mr Bowman is also pictured in his days as a footballer with St Johnstone.