UK National Lottery: Saints and Sinners among the WinnersThe UK National Lottery has been dogged by controversy as the game of chance has thrown up some seemingly less-than-worthy winners over the years.
Of more than 1,600 lottery millionaires, a handful have gained added notoriety through their dubious activities.
The latest is rapist Iorworth Hoare, 52, who scooped £7 million in last Saturdays Lotto Extra while on temporary release from prison.
However, lottery winner Michael Carrolls persistent offending has also been widely reported in recent months.
Last month, the 21-year-old former dustman was jailed for five months for various drugs offences after he breached a drugs testing and treatment order.
Carroll, of Downham Market, Norfolk, had won a £9.7 million National Lottery jackpot.
Another lottery winner was jailed for four years in October 2001 for strangling his wife to avoid giving her half the cash.
Michael OLeary, then 54, was found not guilty of murder after a jury at Liverpool Crown Court ruled that he did not intend to kill wife Michelle.
OLeary, who won £440,000 on the National Lottery, was convicted of the manslaughter of his wife Michelle during a fight at the family home in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside.
In April of that year, Nigel Gardner-Hale, who won £3m, was jailed for a year at Cardiff Crown Court after an all-night drink and drugs party at his home in south Wales.
Former RAF engineer Gardner-Hale, who was 30 at the time, pleaded guilty to supplying ecstasy, possessing ecstasy and allowing the smoking of cannabis at his £300,000 six-bedroom home in Maesteg, south Wales.
And in September last year, an Inland Revenue report revealed that one unnamed lottery winner from London had been found to be paying a domestic worker less than the minimum wage. He paid arrears of £1,205.
While some winners may be deemed less worthy, others have received their good fortune with more grace.
In August last year, a couple who scooped £7.6 million on the National Lottery came to the rescue of a group of Second World War veterans who risked cancelling a trip to honour fallen comrades.
Ray and Barbara Wragg, from Sheffield, were touched by the plight of the Monte Cassino Veterans Association, which was unable to secure £12,500 in lottery funding to pay for 50 war heroes to travel to Italy to mark the 60th anniversary of the battle at Monte Cassino.
Mr and Mrs Wraggs gift was one of many acts of generosity since they won the lottery.
They gave away £5.5 million to their family plus various charities and good causes.
Last week, a housewife who scooped Britains record single lottery win said she would use the £20.1 million jackpot to help her beat cancer.
Iris Jeffrey, 58, from Belfast, took three weeks to claim her prize prize because she forgot about the ticket.
The former home help, her retired husband Robert, and daughters Wendy and Karen now plan to use the cash as they hunt for a cure to her cancer of the gullet.
Whoever winners are or what they decide to spend their earnings on, it can be argued they by buying tickets to raise cash for worthy projects they have already done a good deed.
So far, the National Lottery has raised more than £15 billion for good causes and funded more than 166,000 projects.
