When Lawrence Candlish won £5.5 million (US$8.8 million) playing the National Lottery in 1997 it promised to make his dreams come true, including buying himself the double hip replacement he needed.
The generous factory worker immediately shared his fortune with his many relatives, shelling out £370,000 (US$590,000) to buy seven houses in the same street in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear so that they could be close together.
Eventually he moved with his family to Benidorm on Spain's Costa Blanca to make a new life.
But now the 36-year-old Newcastle United fan is back in England and admits he has "blown the lot."
The penniless Geordie's Spanish villa has been seized by the bank and he has abandoned his Irish-themed pub.
His sister has also lost her Spanish home and his mother's may follow. It is reported that Lawrence, 36, was so broke he had to borrow his taxi fare to the airport.
Since the hard-drinking Geordie's win, which put him at 61 on the Sunday Times rich list, fortune has not been kind to him.
His best friend died, and in 2000 he and his family fled Tyneside after thugs torched his house and his sister's car.
Then, in 2009, his beloved father was found hanged in the home his son bought him.
Before Lawrence returned home from Spain, he told friends on Facebook, "I won the lottery 13 years ago and blew the lot so I have plenty of stories to tell."
He added, worryingy, "Mite have 6 grams of coke so I can chew me ear off watching Emmerdale."
Lawrence's story echoes that of former garbage man Michael Carroll who turned up to collect his £9.7 million (US$15.5 million) win wearing an electronic offender's tag.
Nine years on, the self-styled King of Chavs, is back to where he started — on the dole after squandering his fortune on drugs, gambling and thousands of prostitutes.
But last year he insisted he is just as happy getting £42 a week in jobseeker's allowance.
Carroll said, "The party has ended and it's back to reality. I haven't got two pennies to rub together and that's the way I like it. I find it easier to live off £42 dole than a million."
"It's a bit strange going on the dole again because that's what I was doing before I won."
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Thank to shirley for the tip.
Terrible tragedy perhaps money management is what is needed, to help people not to go off the rails, otherwise its a case of a fool and his money.
Yikes, I am glad that I am a saver.
Money is for spending,but sensibly.
i really dont know what to say. somehow trying to suggest something sensible would be a moot point. 13 years is a good innings. and they both came thru it alive! more than some winners can claim.
Strange now they are poor they are happy, do you realy need that amount of money.
what is a Chav?
This guy had some bad things happen in his life which some could probably been avoided if he'd claimed it quietly without going public. But I don't really buy into "Lottery Curses" and ascribe every BAD event in someone's life to winning a jackpot. It seems some sound financial advice should be sought by these people....Maybe I don't know much about how much things cost in Europe but seems trying to retire and buy a villa in Spain was a little much with a jackpot of ($8million). Perhaps he overestimated how much money he actually had......
According to Wikipedia, a Chav is UK slang for "aggressive teenagers, of white working class background, who repeatedly engage in anti-social behaviour such as street drinking, drug abuse and rowdiness, or other forms of juvenile delinquency."
Sounds exactly like the kind of person you'd want to give a large sum of cash to.
A fool and his money were lucky to get together in the first place.
...and that sums it up entirely!
Don't feel sorry for him. Whose fault was it, anyway? Some people are fortunate enough to be gifted with such a lottery treasure...that most people would <snip> near die for...and what do they do with it -- squander it. Hey, he might be lucky enough to win again, but I hope he's learned his lesson. Indeed, it was his relatives that did him in, his downfall (so sad and pathetic).
Seven houses for under $600G? Unless they meant "each", he got some good deals... and got to have more fun than most people ever will. I say buy another ticket.
You know what people, we read this stories all the time, and I have to admit.....
I JUST DON'T GET IT!
For somebody like me who has it written down steps to take when i win..... (lol) ; i see know since i have a plan, Im destine not to win. I 'm with you sully, I do save/ and work hard, speaking of........ got to go .
Live and Learn
Thats why 3 digit is my main focus.
A chav is also a person who has no dress sense whatsoever, who are famous for their lack of talent, people like Cheryl Cole (tweedy) who abused a night attendant, was very rude towards a contestant called Wagner on the 2010 uk x factor, mimes when singing live has an attitude, but the media in my country thinks she is the nations sweetheart and to whom Simon is appointing to be judge on American x factor and her mini me Cher Lloyd who is a bad rapper/singer, has a bad attitude also and who also appeared on the 2010 x factor, are well known chavs in the UK as a lot of people can't stand them
Regarding this man he has a lack of money management, he should have got a good financial advisor and learnt how to save
Agree agree and agree.
I believe that if these guys won $100 million each after taxes, they will still be broke today! Money cannot change nasty habits just make them worst!
I'm sure you could have bought homes for a bit under 100k back in '97, but the article doesn't make me think he was the type to buy modest houses. In that case, he would have blown about half right at the start, and then everybody would have hefty bills for upkeep on the houses. Even if I'd won the whole MM myself when it hit $380 million, I'd have invested most of the net and figured I had a very generous, but very fixed income to live on.
My advice to jackpot winners is that it is perfectly fine to purchase a multi-million dollar home. You only have one life to live,but make sure you pay off your mansion in full. Then make sure property taxes,electric, and insurance is paid out for the rest of your life. Then make sure you have at least a couple million put up to eat off! last but not least Party,Party and Party!!!
Why would such a young guy need a double hip replacement?
falling over drunk, car crash, geting into fights>?
I have been working hard & saving my money to dowhat i want in life! I wish that i could hit the lottery I do have several plans in place to what i want with the money.
Of course help my two brothers finish their house mortages.College Funds for the two nephews and two neices. then my two sisters assist them how ever I can.
My business plan. My entertainment, Church, Investments. How can I go wrong??
I want to revisit South Africa & Greece.
Yes, I agree with the poster who posited the problem being "habits."
Certainly, it's probably a good idea for we members whose objective is to net multi-millions from the lottery, to begin ceasing bad habits now. For examples: If one currently takes unnecessary drugs to lessen or cease that negative habit even if it requires obtaining nurse's daily visit assistance and monitoring. If one currently buys at least one item per week "impulsively" to cease that negative habit. If one sleeps more than 10 hours per day to cease that negative habit. If one spends over $14 per week gambling and their analysis indicates loses more than gains each week to lessen or cease that negative habit (this includes investments in stocks, mutual funds, options, and futures). If one loans money to others and rarely gets paid back near when the IOU indicates, to cease that negative habit. If one associates with people that don't have mainly positive habits and positive influence on themself, to cease that negative habit (and change their phone #). The diligent daily selfwork is: I'll need to spend time analyzing my actions and endeavors and adjusting if they don't lead to positive, satisfactory, or enthralling outcomes.
Really, one should presume that with greater net worth, any pre-existing negative habits will quickly become amplified and multiply. So, one should have a reduction or cease plan in place for negative habits. It sounds like the problem with both of these big lottery winners was that they began increasing drug usage (not sure if prescription or street drugs, doesn't matter), those drugs clouded their thinking (possibly even deformed brain cells formations), and then this individual spent unreasonable amounts of money on increasing gambling, vacationing, and purchasing, expatriotism ... which caused rapid mental shutting down of their reasoning powers.
I have a bad habit of being a quality spending tightwad (i.e. I rarely give to charity, bums, beggars, family but I have no problem shelling out a few thousand quid for a first-class plane ticket). When I win (hey, playing the lottery is all about the dream, right?!!), my strategy for not falling into arrears or financial disaster would be to spend no more than the amount of interest/dividends earned per year. When I enter into any business deal, I would have my team of lawyers analyze the documents, perform my own due diligence, only put up a percentage that I could afford to lose, and make sure the legal structure shields me from liability. My bad habit that I would really indulge would be playing some of the best golf courses around the world. I have no interest in drugs, free-loading women (i.e. prostitutes), and I wouldn't be foolish to enter into any casino to gamble away my luckily earned fortune (if I accompanied someone to a casino, I would spend no more than 20 quid...yeah, like I said, I am a tightwad!).
Anyway, it is too bad to hear about people who cannot manage their money, but that reality affects lottery winners, business owners, government officials, military people, rich, middle class and of course, poor alike. Of course, no one cares to hear about the person making $25,000 who mismanages his/her money...it much more sensational to hear when some lucky soul experiences that misfortune.
I promise that this will never happen to me!