The National Lottery has changed thousands of lives and funded a golden generation of British Olympians, but not every winner goes on to live happily ever after. And sometimes they hit the headlines long after their windfall.
When binman Michael Carroll scooped a £9.7m jackpot in 2002, he was branded a “Lotto Lout” by newspapers due to his lengthy criminal record. He made headlines when he picked up his winnings wearing an electronic tag imposed for being drunk and disorderly.
The self-proclaimed “King of the Chavs” later became the richest man to be given an Asbo in 2005 as his newfound infamy and fortune did nothing to dilute his penchant for petty crime despite vowing to “go straight” after the win.
Things did not get off to a good start. He persuaded a court to deactivate the tag for seven days and lift a curfew order to allow him to escape media attention after he became a millionaire.
But magistrates in King’s Lynn said the restrictions should be reimposed at a court hearing the following week. And when he was jailed for affray in 2006, Norwich Crown court heard he had 42 previous offences recorded since 1997.
Just before he was jailed, he admitted in an interview that he had spent £1.2m of his lottery fortune on cocaine. That same year, his biographer predicted he would be completely broke within 12 months.
He bought a mansion and turned its garden turned into a 24-hour racetrack and eventually blew all his money on drug-fuelled orgies, fast cars and gambling. He even invested in Rangers Football Club.
Writer Sean Boru said at the time: “He has actually got no cash assets at all. He has actually blown the lot. People did advise him, but he doesn’t take advice.”
Asked if he regretted what he had done since winning the jackpot, Carroll once said: “When you give nine million pounds to a 19-year-old what do you think is going to happen?”
In 2010, he said he wanted his old job back as a binman in his home region of Norfolk. But bosses at the Veolia Environmental Services said they were not hiring operatives at that time.
He appeared in court more than 30 times after his win, but is now living a more peaceful life in Scotland where he was last reported to be working as a coalman after being declared penniless in 2019.
He reunited with ex Sandra Aitken – to whom he was married from 2003 to 2008 – and the couple quietly remarried in October 2021.
Tragically, his sister Zoe – who Michael had given £1 million after his windfall – died two years later after a cocaine binge on the day of her cousin’s funeral in 2023.
Their mum Kim McCleary said Zoe and Michael were “very close”. Kim said after an inquest into Zoe’s death: “They were like two peas in a pod. He has not taken her death very well.”
In 2016, Carroll’s uncle Stephen Muncaster shot his wife in the head then turned the gun on himself. Stephen and Carroll appeared on national TV together after the huge lotto win.