I was branded ‘Britain’s meanest man’ after £5m lotto win… I refused to share & ended up living in a £15-a-night hotel
A LOTTO winner who was branded “Britain’s meanest man” after scooping £5million but refused to share ended up living in a £15-a-night hotel.
Pete Kyle, 70, from Plymouth, guessed all six numbers right to win £5,122,412 in the Lotto draw on January 29, 2005.
The retired Royal Artillery gunner scooped the eye-watering prize and he declared at the time that the money was “going to change” his life.
It was one of Britain’s biggest-ever Lottery wins, and Pete said winning such a huge amount of money was “like a dream”.
Lucky Pete even netted a further £500 two days later when he celebrated his jackpot win at Mecca Bingo.
The winning numbers he chose when he bought the ticket in his local Co-op were the same ones he had selected every weeks for years.
Pete immediately began splashing the cash and treated himself to a new fishing boat and some tackle.
The dad also bought a mansion and quickly set about installing a bar, snooker room, a jacuzzi and steam room.
Pete promised to “change” his family’s life as he also splashed out on a garage filled with top-of-the-range cars.
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.”
For a while, the money had a positive impact and Pete said his main priority would be to secure the future for his two children, Gemma and Roy, 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.
But Pete immediately began squandering £4,600 a day not long after.
Although he said his family’s life would change, that apparently didn’t stretch to his siblings.
The Mail reported at the time that Pete, born into a family of 15, reportedly refused to help his siblings Jean, Carol, David, and Steven – all of whom suffered from incurable Huntingdon’s Disease.
His alleged tight-fistedness led some to brand him “Britain’s meanest man”.
The Sun revealed how 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.
He also installed a snooker room and jackpot in his luxurious mansion – and reportedly gave away expensive boats for just one pound.
But his lavish lifestyle soon caught up with him and just three years later, the mammoth house was reportedly repossessed.
Its new owner became fed up with bailiffs arriving to demand that Pete repay bills for £370,000 in debt.
His private struggles became very public in April 2008, when it was claimed that he had frittered his fortune away.
Aged 55, he was reportedly forced to move into – and work at – a £15-a-night hotel in Plymouth sandwiched between a sex shop and a tattoo parlour.
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.”
At the time of his win, Pete claimed it 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.”
Unfortunately, Pete’s good luck did not last forever and the lotto winner saw his fortunes plummet.
Pete hasn’t been seen in the Plymouth area since 2008 and is said to have moved to Spain.