Daniel Wright, a self-proclaimed football hooligan who won £1,000,000 on the EuroMillions lottery, has revealed how he nearly lost his winnings due to a technicality. Wright, whose fictionalised biography Northern Monkeys charts his rise through the ranks of Bradford City's hard-core following, "The Ointment," was on holiday when he discovered his win.
Speaking to podcaster James English, he said: "I just thought I'd check my emails, and I saw one that said 'You've won on EuroMillions.' I thought it would be £2.50 or something." However, upon opening the official lottery app, he was greeted with a notification informing him of his substantial win. He added: "I wasn't really paying attention. I thought I'd won £1,000, then I thought 'That's not £1,000. I must have counted it 10 times, then I shouted 'Woo!' Like Rick Flair."
But there was a significant hurdle that could have stopped Daniel from claiming his hefty prize, reports the Manchester Evening News. "I won the UK matchmaker," he explained. "But I was in Cape Verde at the time. If I'd bought that ticket in Cape Verde, I wouldn't have got paid."
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Despite being abroad when the draw took place, Daniel's ticket purchase had been processed through a regular weekly direct debit. When he contacted the lottery organisers to claim his winnings, they queried him about his location at the time of purchasing the ticket: "They said to me, 'Where did you put the ticket on?' And I said 'Well, it's a standing order, so it just comes out my bank every month'.
"They said, "Alright, that's alright – but if you'd have bought the ticket while you were abroad, we won't pay you. Imagine that. So, if you ever win the lottery and you're on holiday, don't ring them until you get back."
Daniel still had another 10 days left in Cape Verde, which meant he couldn't claim his winnings until two weeks later. This gave him ample time to worry whether it was all an elaborate April Fools' joke, and then to start fretting that someone might leak a story about his criminal past.
He continued: "I think The Lottery knew that I've been in jail, but it's not it's not a rule that you can't be in in jail and play the lottery." Once he finally collected his prize money, he wasn't entirely sure what to do with it.
"It's strange feeling because you don't know what to do really," he recalled. "You can do what you want so I went travelling for a bit. I got one of those train tickets that goes around Europe, and you can get on and off wherever you want for a month. But after a bit, I got bored of that.
"Even though it's great going looking at all these different cities, but like there's only so many cathedrals and museums you can see before you think 'F***, I want to do something else'".
"So I moved away. I put some money into a couple of businesses here and there and then I just concentrated on writing books. I always wanted to write a novel and I thought 'I've got the perfect chance now,' just so I did that."
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