We often hear Lotto horror stories from the likes of Michael Carroll and Jane Park, but the following story just goes to show that sometimes winning the lottery can be a truly beautiful thing.
Meet Colin Weir, who became Scotland’s biggest lottery winner when he and wife Christine scooped £161 MILLION in 2011.
Colin, a former cameraman at STV, burned through his fortune at a rate of £100,000 a week (!), splashing out on cars and pumping money into his favourite football club, Partick Thistle. In fact he bought a 55% stake in the club so he could donate the club to the fans and put its future in the hands of the local community. What a legend.
By the time Colin died from sepsis following an ‘acute kidney injury’ in 2019, his fortune had shrunk by £40m, according to the Daily Record. One financial expert told the paper:
“Spending £40million in eight years takes a bit of doing.”
What an 8 years it was though. Colin also shared his fortune with friends and charitable trusts, and passed on money to his two children – Carly, 32, and Jamie, 30.
In 2018, Colin divorced Christine and bought himself a £1.1million five-bedroom seafront home in Ayr. His garage housed four luxury cars – a vintage Bentley Arnage, worth £10,000, a £28,250 three-year-old Jaguar F-Pace SUV, a £24,000 four-year-old Mercedes Benz E Class Estate and a 2019 Mercedes Benz V Class people carrier, valued at about £35,000.
Racing fan Colin also partly owned three thoroughbreds, including geldings Knighted and Felony, and Irish mare If You Say Run.
So it’s fair to say our dearly departed Colin made the most of his final 8 years on Earth following his massive Euromillions win. Just putting on an absolute masterclass on how to spend money by purchasing Bonds, making investments, donating to charity, spoiling himself and his family, buying a majority stake in his favourite football club and still leaving enough cash to set up his future generations for life. Who says money can’t buy happiness? Colin seemed pretty happy to me!
What’s also great is that he didn’t immediately divorce wife Christine upon winning the Euromillions either. He stayed with her for 7 years before deciding to go full-on bachelor mode with a beautiful seafront mansion in 2018. Apart from dying a year later, it’s pretty much the perfect way to handle a Lottery win. Let the rest of us take Colin’s example should we ever be so lucky.
