THE National Lottery is 20 years old this week and we are tracking down
some of its most famous – and infamous – winners.
We start with “Lotto Lag“ Lee Ryan. The ex-jailbird scooped the £6.5million
jackpot just 17 weeks after the Lottery was launched on November 14, 1994,
but ended up down and out.
Here Lee reveals how his luck was “cursed” and gives his top tips for
winners…
SERVING three years for stealing cars, Lee Ryan climbed on the bunk in his
prison cell, put his hands together and prayed: “Please, God, make me a
millionaire, no… a multi-millionaire.”
Nine years later his prayers were answered.
On March 11, 1995, just 17 weeks after the National Lottery began, Lee and
girlfriend Karen Taylor hit the jackpot. They won £6,527,880.
The couple, who were living with their three young children in a council house
in Leicester, tried to keep it secret.
But Lee, who was due to stand trial for stealing cars to order, soon hit the
headlines as the Lotto Lag — the first bad boy to pocket the pot.
Today, the money, his £1million mansion, £235,000 helicopter and £125,000
plane, the fleet of flash cars and superbikes have all gone.
And every business venture he has invested his winnings into failed.
Twice-divorced Lee, 54, says: “The money was cursed because I took the p**s
out of God when I asked him to make me a multi-millionaire.
“My cellmate warned me to be careful what I wished for.”
In an extraordinary interview with The Sun, Lee says that for two years he was
homeless.
And amazingly he says he is happier now than in the days when he had millions
in the bank.
Lee says: “I’m not ashamed of the fact I was homeless. I was at my happiest. I
just let life happen and I met some fantastic people.”
On his way to meet me, Lee gave £10 to a homeless man. He says: “You don’t put
your arm into a waste bin for attention. I can’t walk by when people need
help.”
Lee now lives in a tiny two-room rented flat in South London where he often
takes in homeless people.
He is godfather to the daughter of a Romanian woman he found heavily pregnant
and living on a park bench.
Lee is also free of the fears that came with winning £6.5million.
He hired an ex-SAS soldier to guard his family after hearing of an underworld
plot to abduct and ransom one of his kids.
Their housekeeper stole £40,000 and was jailed for three years. An arsonist
tried to set fire to his £145,000 Ferrari.
And a £15,000 caravan in the 40-acre grounds of his £1million mansion in the
Leicestershire countryside was burned out.
Just before he was jailed in autumn 1995 for car theft, he married Karen. But
they split up eight years later because of his cheating.
Lee moved to London where he met 24-year-old student Jika. They set up home in
her native Kyrgyzstan — where he was ripped off to the tune of almost
£2million.
He invested in a scheme to take the lottery to China but claims crooked
officials cheated him. And a venture to build a fish farm in the central
Asia republic was scuppered when local mafia bosses stole his fish.
By 2010, Lee had divorced Jika, the mother of his daughter Talulah, and came
back to Britain with nothing but a sleeping bag. For the next two years he
slept rough.
He says: “I slept anywhere I could, on park benches, in cemeteries, on
benches, in doorways.
“I travelled all over the country. I bumped into what I call ‘living angels’
where I am not asking anybody for anything and someone turns up saying, ‘Are
you all right, mate? Want a lift anywhere?’
“I met some fantastic people. Some offered me money but I wouldn’t take it.
Then you would have people offering to take you home and give you food.”
Today Lee makes a precarious living as a cameraman — earning less than £10,000
a year. But he says: “If I had not won the Lottery I would probably now be
doing life.”
He was only ever convicted for stealing cars, but Lee tells The Sun that
before his Lotto win he was planning an armed robbery.
He says: “I’m not that person now but I was a monster then, there’s no doubt
about it.
“There’s also no doubt winning the Lottery saved me as a person and saved the
lives of my potential victims. I was an armed robber.
“I never s**t on my own doorstep but we were planning a really big job in
Belgium. That was in the offing prior to that win. It was all mapped out to
go.
“The more you do these things, the more you risk it. When it comes on top of
you, how are you going to respond?
“My thing was always to deal with it by going armed and the gun must be
loaded.
“If they wanted to play silly buggers, they’d get it in the knees at the very
least.
“You have to have this in your mind before you set off. You can’t just stumble
into it, thinking ‘What shall I do?’
“The win saved me from that fate — and someone else from being my victim.”
Before their Lottery win, Karen, the mother of his two boys and a girl, had
pleaded with Lee to give up his life of crime.
He recalls: “I lost it with her completely. I reached under the bed where the
sawn-off shotgun was. It was always kept loaded.
“I pointed it in her face. I told her, ‘Shut up’. I don’t think I’d have
pulled the trigger on Karen. She said, ‘Go on, then. Shoot me!’
“That snapped me out of it and made me think, ‘What sort of a monster have I
become?’ It would only have escalated.”
But on March 11, 1995, when his winning numbers — 2, 13, 22, 27, 29, 46 — came
up, he gave up his life of crime. Lee wanted to keep the win quiet but told
relatives.
He says: “Somebody bubbled us. Soon the threats started. Once, in a nightclub,
a bouncer said, ‘Listen, there’s a plot to kidnap one of your kids and hold
them to ransom’.
“He named names and I knew the threats were genuine.
“The people behind it were serious guys. Every city has its mafia but nobody
threatens my kids.
“I went to his house to kill him. I waited all night in his hedge with a
shotgun to kill him. Luckily, he never turned up.”
Lee, who handed his shotgun to the police in a weapons amnesty, feared his
family might be under threat while he was in jail in the autumn of 1995 for
car theft.
While he served nine months in Leicester Prison, his family, now living in the
mansion, was guarded round-the-clock by an ex-SAS soldier. The bill was
£45,000.
Once freed from jail, he retreated behind the mansion gates, but criminals
kept wanting him to invest in dodgy deals.
He says: “I turned them all down. I made a concerted effort never to go down
that road again. If I had gone down that route, I would be doing life.”
My FIVE tips for winners
1. LEARN to say the word “No”. Never forget that it’s YOUR
money and you can never be too paranoid about your wealth.
2. STRAIGHT after your win, go abroad for at least two weeks – I could
not go abroad because my passport had been surrendered to the courts. Enjoy
your wealth, you played against massive odds and won. But don’t pay top
price for your break, negotiate a discount.
3. WHEN making out a cheque always write the amount on the back in big
letters – it prevents others adding numbers. This happened to me THREE
times.
4. IF you are going to give money to friends and relatives, consider
giving them a monthly amount rather than a lump sum. If you give away
£1million you will miss out on a lot of interest.
5. BUYING an exotic new motor is a mug’s game. It won’t be worth
three-quarters of what you have just forked out and running it will chew
into your cash mountain.
Win £1,000
TO celebrate the National Lottery’s 20th anniversary we’re giving 20 Sun+
members £1,000 each. Enter
Sun+ membership required. Competition ends midnight Thursday, November 20,
2014. T&Cs apply (see link).