Britons scoop £91m EuroMillions prize
Updated on 10 November 2009
The day their dreams came true: seven IT workers from Liverpool and a married couple from Wales share a £91m lottery win.
They thought they were being made redundant, but seven IT workers from Liverpool got rather better news when the phone rang on Sunday: they had won £45m on the lottery.
One said she fell off a chair in shock; another ran up and down screaming "Oh, my God".
The record £91m payout was shared with Les and Samantha Scadding from Wales, who were £68 overdrawn at the bank when they bought two lucky dip tickets at their local supermarket. Now they are planning a dream car and a holiday in Barbados.
The winners held press conferences to talk about their £45.5m share of Friday night's jackpot.
Mr and Mrs Scadding from south Wales are thought to be the seventh set of lottery millionaires to come from Gwent in the last three years. They told reporters that the true scale of the in still hadn't sunk in.
The win could not have come at a better time for the couple as Mr Scadding lost his job in the recession and has been unemployed since Christmas.
Speculation surrounding the identity of the winners had mounted since it was announced that the huge jackpot was to be shared between two tickets.
The excitement reached fever pitch with rumours of possible winners emerging up and down the UK.
In County Londonderry, a businessman was forced to announce he had definitely not won the huge payout after becoming inundated with calls from ill-informed well-wishers. Mickey Gormley announced he was not a winner after declaring the situation had got out of control.
The holders of the winning tickets have to pass security checks before meeting with a private banker who handles the money transfer and advisers who discuss how to deal with their new-found wealth.
They also advise winners on whether they should go public once the win is confirmed. Around 25 per cent of winners opt for the publicity with the rest staying anonymous.
The winning couple from Newport will now enter the realms of the super-rich with their huge win. Their ticket will bestow upon them wealth at the level of celebrities such as DJ Chris Evans, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and film star Sir Michael Caine, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
Hunter Davies, veteran journalist and author of Living on the Lottery, where he follow the lives of 20 jackpot winners over the course of a year, told Channel 4 News lottery winners "rarely move away from where they are and they don't go and live abroad".
"A vast majority of people's problems in life are to do with money, paying the bills, looking after their children. That is straight away out of it if you've got all this money. You're bound to be happier."
