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Life of ‘Britain’s meanest’ lottery winner left in ‘crippling debt’ after scooping £5m
Few people know what it’s like to win the National Lottery or what impact having limitless cash would have on their lives, but Pete Kyle does.
The retired Royal Artillery gunner scooped £5.1m when his numbers came up, and he declared at the time that the money was “going to change” his life.
And it did, as soon he was known as “Britain’s meanest” lottery winner, but a short while later, he reportedly went bust and was saddled with huge debts.
Here we take a look inside the life of Pete Kyle, from Plymouth, Devon, and what happened to him after the luckiest day of his life.
What would you do if you won the lottery? Let us know in the comments…
As Plymouth Live reports, Pete, then 52, guessed all six numbers right to win the mind-blowing jackpot of £5,122,412 in the Lotto draw on January 29, 2005.
It was one of Britain’s biggest-ever Lottery wins, and Pete said winning such a huge amount of money was “like a dream”.
His numbers – 3, 8, 27, 38, 44 and 46, the same numbers he has put on every week for years – were fed into a local Co-op National Lottery machine in Plymouth.
He didn’t find out he was a winner until the next day.
He said at the time: “I had been out on Saturday night so by the time I got home it was late and I forgot all about checking my numbers.
“It wasn’t until Sunday morning that I remembered to get my ticket and check the numbers on Teletext.
“When I found out I’d matched all six and that I was the only winner, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I had to take a breath – it was like a dream.”
Pete phoned his daughter Gemma, then 20, as soon as he learned of his big win, and said, ‘I think I’ve won the lottery’.
He continued: “She just screamed down the phone she was so excited.
“Gemma double-checked the numbers for me but there was no mistaking it – I’d won the jackpot and spent the rest of the day at home taking it in.”
On the Monday night, Pete went out to celebrate with pals at Devonport’s Mecca Bingo – and promptly won £500.
“I’ve always had a bit of luck of the Irish,” said Pete, who planned to spend his days messing about on the water in a new fishing boat.
“I won’t want for anything any more. I’ve always had nought but now everything’s going to change. All our lives are going to change.”
For a while, the money had a positive impact and at the top of Pete’s shopping list that week was a fishing boat and some new tackle, so he could continue to enjoy his favourite pastime.
He also planned to buy a Nissan Patrol four-wheel drive car.
But he said his main priority would be to secure the future for his two children, Gemma and Roy, who was then 11, as well as treating them both to holidays.
He and Roy immediately made plans to visit Florida, where his son could spend a month exploring the delights of SeaWorld and Disney World, where they were to stay, while Pete fished for Marlin.
He also quickly decided to trade in his humble maisonette for a massive detached home back in the UK.
Meanwhile, nursery nurse Gemma was hoping for a flat of her own and a holiday with some friends.
“I’d always said I would live life to the full if I won,” she said at the time. “Thanks to Dad’s win, I’ve got a really good start in life.”
Pete came from a family of 15 – six brothers and eight sisters – and grew up the son of a plasterer.
He was a Royal Artillery gunner for almost 10 years before retiring in 1991. He later worked for a brewery, delivering beer and he retired on an Army pension, suffering from a bad knee.
Pete claimed his Lotto win had fulfilled a fortune teller’s prophecy which he was told 46 years earlier.
As a young boy growing up in Devonport, he once answered the door to an elderly Romany woman.
He said: “I told her we had nowt to give her, we were a family of 16 – my parents, six brothers and eight sisters.”
Instead, the woman read his palm and told him he would meet someone by the water and marry them, have two children, and come into a large sum of money in later life.
Sitting outside the Plymouth Marine Aquarium after winning his multi-million-pound fortune, flanked by his ex-wife Jean and his children a few days after the win, Pete said: “It’s all come true.
“I met my wife, had two kids and now I have a few bob in the bank.”
The news quickly travelled – and bosses at the Co-op store where the winning ticket was bought put extra staff on expecting a stampede of players hoping the luck rubbed off on them.
Manager Mike Smith said: “We reckon there will be a lot more people than usual coming in.
“I have put extra staff on because people may now see it as a lucky store. And maybe it is.”
But then Pete’s luck started to run out.
In an interview with the local newspaper The Plymouth Herald just days after his jackpot triumph, he said: “I don’t need anything now.
“When I watch television, when the adverts come on, I realise that whatever I see I can buy.
“It is going to change my family’s life.”
Although he said his family’s life would change, that apparently didn’t stretch to his siblings.
The Mail reported at the time that although Pete had 14 brothers and sisters, he refused to help any of them – even though they suffered from Huntindon’s Disease.
He was so stingy, that he became known as “Britain’s meanest man”.
But for Pete, it was all smiles and with the champagne in full flow at his bumper cheque presentation at the National Marine Aquarium – though Pete did not drink – he added: “It is unbelievable.
“I won £500 cash at the bingo on Monday and I was pleased.
“I am fairly lucky. If I’m in a raffle I generally win something. I guess I just have a lucky touch.
“It is a lot of money. I don’t know if it will ever sink in, but my family will help me spend it.”
With his Disney World holiday booked and a new home bought, Pete turned his attention to boats.
“When I have my boat I will go out all the time”, he said.
“I like my fishing. At the moment I fish off the Hoe, or Slapton Sands or Torquay – but when I have my boat I will go wherever fish are about.
“I don’t actually eat fish – I don’t like it – but I enjoy catching them. My life from now on is fishing.”
Pete’s ex-wife, Jean, 42 at the time, supported him during his presentation and press conference at the aquarium, and he had already promised to buy something for her, and she wanted a Renault Megane.
She said: “I can’t believe it. I am chuffed that my kids will be made for life. I just hope Pete will enjoy it.”
And son Roy added: “I’m really excited because I know I am going to get spoilt.”
Pete promised to keep much of his life private and he did just that – secretly buying a mansion in an exclusive area of Plymouth, called Delgany Drive.
There, he knocked down an attractive coach house beside the property and replaced it with a large double garage for his plush cars. He installed a bar, a snooker room and all the mod-cons.
The house contained a large lounge, kitchen and master bedroom, a jacuzzi and steam room, a hot tub, an indoor swimming pool and a pub-style bar, complete with optics and a full-size snooker table.
But then, somehow, the money reportedly ran out and the house was repossessed.
His private struggles became very public in April 2008, when it was claimed in the media that he had frittered his fortune away.
Aged 55, he was reported to be living at the Rooms Hotel, next to a sex shop and opposite a tattoo parlour. And The Sun claimed he owed money to creditors.
Neighbours in Derriford told the newspaper: “He did a huge amount of building there. But he didn’t have planning permission for any of it.”
According to The Sun, Pete spent £550,000 on the house in Derriford, £40,000 on a Mercedes, £40,000 on a Range Rover and another £20,000 on a 4×4.
His friends claimed he lost his money in a series of unsuccessful investments.
One said in 2008: “Now he’s got nothing and he even owes cash.
“It’s hard to believe he was a millionaire.”
The newspaper claimed Pete was living and working as a caretaker at the budget hotel while pocketing around £100 a week in disability living allowance and mobility allowance and driving a Vauxhall Astra.
Friends came to the defence of the dad-of-two at the time, telling The Herald he was not “skint”, was “definitely not” claiming benefits and was “helping out” a friend at the hotel.
A source said at the time: “Pete has been working at the hotel for a few months just to get by. He has his own room, marked ‘private’, and he spends a lot of time in there.
“He shuffles around and cooks breakfast for the punters and is a general dogsbody for the owner.”
A Plymouth bait shop employee, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Herald at the time that Pete had been a regular visitor to the premises but then the man, nicknamed ‘Lotto’, stopped coming in.
The source said: “From what I’ve heard, I’d think it’s true he would have spent all his money.
“I know a chap who sold him a home which has since been repossessed.”
He added that, a year earlier, in 2007, Pete still seemed “flush with money”.
“He’d spend all right,” said the shop employee. “He was quite flashy with his money. I think he was giving expensive boats away at Mutton Cove for around £1.”
A few days after reports first emerged of Pete’s downfall, the businessman who bought the luxury home the lottery winner had lived in told The Herald he was sick of opening the door to bailiffs.
He said since buying the luxurious five-bedroom house in October 2007 for a knock-down price of £540,000, his postbox had been crammed with letters from Pete’s creditors – with bills for £370,000 arriving in just six months.
He said he had written to 260 separate people telling them Pete was no longer living in the house, which he bought as a repossession from High Court bailiffs, contents included.
He also claimed thousands of pounds’-worth of bills had landed on his doorstep in just the past month.
The huge pile of post reportedly included gas and electricity bills, parking fines, TV licence demands, county court judgements, bank overdraft details and letters from various credit firms.
The Herald reported that Pete was nowhere to be found – with one woman at the Rooms Hotel saying at the time: “As far as I know he has gone to Spain.”
He hasn’t been heard from since.
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