Lottery winner blows $15.5m on booze, prostitutes

Nine years after winning a whopping £9.7 million ($15.5 million), Michael Carroll is back at square one after wasting his money on wild parties, cocaine, prostitutes, cars and jewellery.

The Norfolk man is an alcoholic who now earns £75 a day as a painter and decorator, according to media reports.

His lawyer, Ian Graham, said Carroll wanted to be left alone after being "targeted by so many undesirable people".

"Nine years after he famously turned up to collect his (Lotto) winnings wearing an electronic tag, the 27-year-old was in court again for breaching a community order for drink driving," the Daily Mail reported.

Carroll was spared jail in September after he was caught driving his car while nearly four times over the drink-driving limit.

"He was given a 16-week prison sentence, suspended for a year, 120 hours unpaid work and ordered to attend probation appointments and an alcohol program," The Mail said.
Carroll told the court that no one had given him a chance in the past two years.

"When this job as a painter and decorator came along, I just had to take it," he said.

Carroll said he had been trying to get back on his feet, and if he had gone to prison he would have lost his job.

"Carroll, who has a string of criminal convictions, frittered away almost his entire fortune on wild parties, cocaine, prostitutes, luxury cars, chunky gold jewellery and cash hand-outs to hangers-on," The Mail said.

"He made the lives of neighbours a misery by buying a three acre field to stage demolition derbies in old banger cars behind his former home in Swaffham, Norfolk.

"The field was left littered with the remains of dozens of his crashed and burned-out cars.

"At one stage his antics became so bad that council officials set up a hotline for neighbours to report disturbances he was involved in."

Carroll was forced to sell his dream home for a £600,000 loss last August after wrecking it and moved to Downham Market.

"Carroll started working as a painter after going on the dole and being told he could not get back his old £200-a-week job back as a dustman," The Mail said.

"He has had a string of court appearances for motoring offences and other crimes since his big win.

"Carroll was jailed for five months in 2004 after failing to comply with a drug treatment order imposed as part of a sentence for cocaine possession.

"He was also given an Asbo (Anti Social Behaviour Order) in 2005 for catapulting ballbearings at cars and windows from his Mercedes.

"Carroll then vowed to turn over a new leaf - but in February 2006 he was jailed for nine months for running amok with a bat at a Christian rock concert."

Man wastes $15.5m on booze, prostitutes