I won £6.5m on lottery but I ended up in jail just months after hitting jackpot – the money was cursed
A MAN who won £6.5million on the lottery burned through the money and ended up in jail just six months after his big win.
Lee Ryan, who scooped the hefty prize in March 1995, said the money was nothing but a “curse”.
The lottery winner, now in his 60s, was dubbed the “Lotto Lag” after he was jailed for 18 months for handling stolen cars.
He became the first British lottery millionaire to end up behind bars and served nine months of his sentence.
But after years of high living and bad investments, the former millionaire was last known to be renting a two-room flat in south London and earning less than £10,000.
Ryan insisted in 2014 that he was happier being broke than he had ever been as a millionaire.
He told The Sun at the time he prayed to God to make him a millionaire while serving a prison sentence in 1986 for stealing cars.
“My cellmate warned me to be careful what I wished for,” he said.
“The money was a curse”.
Ryan was a used car trader and lived with his girlfriend Karen Taylor when he scooped the impressive £6.5m win.
But he soon blew his cash on a £1m country mansion and a fleet of luxury cars, including a Bentley, a Ferrari, a Porsche and a BMW with personalised number plates LEE 1, LEE 2, LEE 3, LEE 4.
The family home came equipped with a swimming pool, tennis court, sauna, Jacuzzi and games room.
He then bought two Ducati superbikes, a £125,000 plane and a £235,000 Bell JetRanger helicopter, which he was later fined for using after buzzing homes.
Ryan even hired a bodyguard following prison threats to his family.
An anonymous pal told the Daily Record at the time: “When he was first sent to prison, the other inmates were falling over themselves to befriend him because of his money.
“But some powerful people have now apparently turned against him because of his attitude.
“He has taken the threats seriously and is determined that Karen and the kids will be looked after until he comes out.”
He also beefed up security at his home, installing hi-tech cameras and bringing in guard doors after he is said to have fallen out with fellow lags.
Ryan and Taylor split in 2003, with the millionaire then deciding to move to London to be with his 24-year-old student girlfriend, Jyldyz Djangaracheva, known as Jika.
The pair moved to her home country of Kyrgyzstan when he lost another £2million in failed business ventures and property investments.
One venture to build a fish farm fell foul of local mafia.
By 2010, they had divorced and Ryan was back in Britain with nothing but a sleeping bag and spent the next two years sleeping on the streets.
He said: “I travelled all over the country. I bumped into what I call ‘living angels’ where I am not asking anybody for anything and someone turns up saying, ‘Are you all right, mate?'”.
It’s now thought Ryan works as a cameraman and rents a flat in South London and claims he takes homeless people in as guests.