A LOTTO winner who bagged an eye-watering £6.5million jackpot and splurged it all on supercars, mansions and helicopters ended up homeless.
Lee Ryan, famously known as the Lotto Lag, dubbed his life-changing windfall a “curse” after two-divorces, nightmare investments and ending up on the streets.
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He and his girlfriend Karen Taylor hit the jackpot in 1995 when they were living with their three-kids in a Leicester council house.
They played the lucky ticket while Lee was awaiting trial for handling stolen cars, and he was serving time in prison when the money came through.
It made Lee the first ever British lottery winner to be imprisoned – but not the only one to fall victim to the ‘Lotto Curse’.
He said previously: “My cellmate warned me to be careful what I wished for,” as he prayed for the cash.
“The money was a curse,” he added.
After serving nine months, the multimillionaire splashed his cash on a lavish £1million mansion and a collection of luxury cars.
He had his Bentley, Ferrari, Porsche and BMW all personalised with the licence plates LEE 1, LEE 2, LEE 3, LEE 4.
Lee also splurged on two Ducati superbikes, a £125,000 plane and a £235,000 Bell JetRanger helicopter.
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However, by 2003, he had split with Karen and moved to to Kyrgyzstan with new girlfriend Jyldyz Djangaracheva, 24.
After the breakdown of his marriage with Karen, Lee dwindled £2milllion away in poor investments.
He even tried running a fish farm in his second wife’s home country, but it was taken over by local mafia.
To add insult to injury, a large sum of his winnings were stolen by local officials and a housekeeper robbed him of £40,000.
Meanwhile, an arsonist targeted and torched his £145,000 Ferrari and £15,000 caravan.
This led to another divorce and Lee returned to the UK broke.
He slept rough for two years while he reflected on losing the £6.5million jackpot.
Lee previously told the Mirror: “Be careful what you wish for. People always think, ‘Oh, if I win tomorrow that will be the end of my worries’.
“That’s just not true, this is just the beginning of your worries.
“You will see who is who in your life, even in your own family it becomes fractured. It’s all just an illusion really.”
New Start
Lee managed to recover from his riches to rags tale and got himself off the streets.
He found a job as a painter and decorator which has provided him with inner peace.
The lotto winner, now living in Twickenham in south-west London, said: “Apart from death you can’t get much more rock bottom than being homeless, so I tested myself and it’s all good.
“Sometimes even now I spend my nights in tents just to remind myself that I’m bomb-proof, I’ve gone through it all.
“Now I’m just looking for that middle ground where you still have to strive for what you want, rather than just having it handed to you.”
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Reflecting on his life, Lee said: “There was a time when I prayed for my pound back. But now at this point I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my whole life.”
The Lotto Curse
Many lottery winners have suffered huge downfalls after hitting the jackpot;
Callie Rogers
- She became Britain’s youngest lottery winner when she won £1.9million in 2003.
- Eighteen years after her win, Callie was found to be claiming Universal Credit after blowing her fortune. The revelation came during a trial after she was involved in a car crash while on cocaine in December 2020.
Michael Carroll
- The self-styled ‘King of Chavs’ was 19 when he scooped £9,736,131 on the National Lottery in November 2002.
- Carroll’s wife, Sandra, left him just a month after their wedding in 2003 after being appalled by his incessant partying, accusing him of cheating on her with sex workers.
- He also racked up an Asbo for terrorising his neighbours and spent time in jail for affray and failing to comply with a drug treatment order.
- By February 2010 Michael was declared bankrupt and was claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance.
- He lost his entire fortune and was found working for £10 an hour chopping wood and delivering coal in 2019.
Gillian and Adrian Bayford
- The couple’s lives changed in 2012 when they scooped a staggering £148million.
- But just 15 months after the win, their eight-year marriage ended with both parties partly blaming stress from their mind-boggling win.
- Gillian is now with fraudster Brian Deans, who was jailed for six months in 2012 after he stole £13,500 in fake refunds from Tesco.
Margaret Loughrey
- She scooped £27m in 2013 and became Northern Ireland’s biggest winner at the time.
- Tragically, in September 2021, Margaret, by now in her 50s, was found dead in her home.
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