Lotto Lout Michael Carroll: I'm skint at last after 10 years spending £9.7million
Jul 29 2012 by Nick Dorman, The People
He was the sneering yob who roused envy and disgust as he threw himself into squandering his £9.7million *jackpot.
Now, at last, Lottery Lout Michael Carroll, 29, has totally run out of cash.
He told The People exclusively how there is only 70P left in his account.
And he feels bitterly let-down by some of those he lavished money on.
Tattooed Carroll said he blew his *fortune on holidays, handouts to family and friends, cars, bling, drugs and booze.
In the hope of another life-changing win, he still buys lottery tickets. Every week he scans the draw to check his lucky dips.
Carroll, who was wearing an electronic tag when he bought his winning ticket in 2002, never wanted to spend it quietly. He aimed to rub every resentful person’s nose in it.
The former binman, jailed twice since his big win, said: “I just went wild for 10 years and now I’m back to reality.
“I’ve experienced more in a decade than most people would in two lifetimes but I’ve no regrets and I’d do it all again.”
In 10 years of excess Carroll, who styled himself King of Chavs, said he simply gave away £3MILLION to friends and family.
He paid £750,000 to his ex-wife, spent at least £1.5MILLION on drink and drugs, £1.2MILLION on property, £500,000 on cars, £500,000 on holidays, including 100 trips to Spain and £100,000 on gold jewellery.
Carroll also put more than £1MILLION into his favourite football club.
How the remaining £1,150,000 was spent – he just can’t remember.
The dad of two looks older than 29 because of all the drug binges and the heavy boozing that saw his weight balloon to 22 stone.
Ecstasy
He said: “At the height of my drinking I’d get 20 cases of Stella a time and the local cab firm would keep bottles of vodka and Jameson whiskey at their office and I’d call their drivers to get them to drop it straight round.
“I was doing £12,000 a week on drugs at the height of the madness.
“The drugs nearly killed me. I ended up in hospital numerous times. When I was smoking crack I collapsed, had a fit and was spewing up blood. I did that about 10 or 15 times.
“I’d come round and think nothing had happened because I couldn’t remember.
“But I’d be like a cripple for two days *because all my muscles would seize up.
“I smoked crack, I was eating ecstasy pills and snorting MDMA powder.
“Once when I was doing acid I was going to the loo and I thought the toilet had jumped up and run away from me. I thought trees were trying to grab me.
“I smoked heroin but I never liked it. I did pretty much everything else. But not for a few years now.”
Carroll also spent wildly on prostitutes. He claimed: “I’ve slept with over 4,000 women. I once slept with more than 20 in one day with a mate in Amsterdam. I’m *single at the *moment, I’ll just take the next s*** as it comes.
“I still get attention from women even though the money’s gone.”
Cars were another passion and he can tell of 46 motors he bought.
He said: “I’ve had three Lexuses, two Warriors, an old Orion, two Sierra Cosworths, seven or eight BMWs, a Range Rover, three Mitsubishi Evo, two Porches, two Mercedes Vito vans, three Mercedes Sprinter vans, a Merc E-Class, a GSXR 1,000cc motorbike, a limousine, seven cyclo-cross bikes, half a dozen quad bikes, two dirt buggies and the load of wrecks I bought from scrapyards.
“Oh, and a tractor. Now I haven’t got a car. I’m banned for drink-driving.”
Once dripping with £100,000 of gold *jewellery, Carroll’s bling has become reduced to a single ring, a present from a friend.
Since his £9,736,131 win – on Saturday, November 2, 2002 – he has served jail terms for offences including affray and failing to comply with a drug testing order.
Carroll said: “Prison wasn’t so bad. You get looked after in there if you’ve got money.”
He recalled one of his main problems with millions to spend was boredom.
“You just try and find things to do. There’s only so many times you can go on holiday. I must have been to Spain a hundred times. I kept missing flights back and just staying.”
He was happy to hand over money to friends and relatives but feels they took advantage.
Carroll is considering legal action against his aunt Kelly Muncaster, 39, claiming she refuses to give him back her house.
It was bought in her name just to keep it safe if his assets were seized, he insists.
The dispute, exclusively revealed in The People this month, left Carroll homeless.
He said: “I only put it in her name so my ex-wife couldn’t get it in the divorce.
“I don’t know why she won’t hand it over because I gave her a million. I’m *going to take her to court. It’s going to be a bit weird not being in the dock, though.”
Carroll plans a separate legal action against a man he claims to have paid £3,000 for a piece of land which he lost after *forgetting to sign paperwork.
There have also been disputes over *assets with his ex-girlfriend Gemma Peake, 25, mum of his younger daughter.
Carroll said: “Money is the root of all evil. It brings out the worst in people.
“Money’s destroyed half the people I’ve loved. It’s gone straight to their head. It brought out the worst in some people, especially Auntie Kelly.
“I’ve given her so much help and now she’s refusing to sort out the house.
“I’ve started seeing my eldest daughter again but it’s hard seeing my *youngest. I’m not getting on with her mum.
“My eldest, Brooke, is nine. She’ll probably call me a d***head when she’s older.”
Carroll, estranged from ex-wife Sandra Aitken, 29 – Brooke’s mother – added: “Me and my mum have been on and off for years but I’m very close to my sister.”
Remembering his early days as a millionaire he said: “It was the first time I’d ever drunk champagne when I was given it by Camelot.
“I nearly didn’t buy my winning ticket that day. I was going to buy an extra can of Stella *but instead I got a lucky dip.
“But things went wrong straight away. I got my first death threat the next day and I’ve had thousands ever since.
“One said they’d chop my daughter up and send her back to me piece by piece.
Dustcart
“One was sending pictures of my whole family and details of where they lived. I was really worried about my family.
“I began sleeping with a shotgun and I kept a blade in every room of my house.”
Carroll said his only smart move was *taking his £1million-plus investment out of Glasgow Rangers FC before they went bust this year. But he still blew that.
“I took the money out of Rangers at the height of my drug thing,” he recalled.
“At least it didn’t just disappear when the club went bankrupt.” One of his lowest points was when Gemma, a hairdresser, left him and he was admitted to hospital after *apparently *trying to hang himself.
He said: “I lost the love of my life and it just did me in. Losing the money didn’t bother me. That was much worse”.
Now he lives on £42 a week benefits and dosses on mates’ sofas.
“I’m claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance and I don’t feel bad about it. I paid my tax when I was working on the bins.”
Carroll also said: “I want to read and write properly.” He has enrolled on a literacy course as well as starting to exercise and cutting down from 11 pints of Stella a day to just one.
“I’ve been trying to get a normal job. I did a couple of painting jobs last year.
“I tried to get back on the bin rounds but they wouldn’t have me. If I hadn’t won 10 years ago I’d still be on the bins but I’d *probably be driving the *dustcart by now.
“I’ve got a forklift licence and I’m *trying to get some work with that.
“I’ve got a lot of memories, good and bad but I’m happy to move on in my life. I’m ready for the next chapter.”
Carroll, from Downham Market, Norfolk, has a simple message to anyone who resents him for winning – and losing – a fortune.
“I paid my pound like everyone else and it’s my business what I did with the money.
“I could have put it away but life’s not a rehearsal. You’ve only got one chance to do it all. And I did it with a bang.
“I’ve got a lottery ticket in my pocket. I bought two lucky dips. You never know.
“If I won it again I’d definitely go public and stick it right up everyone’s noses.”
. I would have lived off of that and kept the rest in the bank.
Lord let me win 2.6 million
