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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.”
Many lottery winners have suffered huge downfalls after hitting the jackpot;
Callie Rogers
Michael Carroll
Gillian and Adrian Bayford
Margaret Loughrey
