Riches to rags: Won Dh57m... and lost all

A riches to rags story...A man who won £9.7million ($15.5m) on Lotto has squandered it and is now an alcoholic, earning £75-per-day as a painter and decorator.

Michael Carroll, 27, turned up in court nine years after hitting the jackpot for breaching a community order for drink driving, according to 'HeraldSun.com'.

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

He made the lives of neighbours a misery by buying a 1.2 hectare field to stage demolition derbies in old banger cars behind his former home in Swaffham, Norfolk.

At one stage, officials set up a hotline for neighbours to report disturbances he was involved in. Carroll  was finally forced to sell his dream home for a £600,000 loss last August after wrecking it.

He started working as a painter after hitt8ing penury.

"He continues to drink heavily and it has now become far more than social drinking," said his lawyer Graham.

"He is now working as a painter and decorator and not troubling the state by claiming benefits. He is back at square one and just wants to be left alone." 

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

He said after the hearing that he was "relieved" not to be going back to prison.

"For two years no one has given me a chance, but when this job as a painter and decorator came along, I just had to take it," Carroll said.

"I am really trying hard to get back on my feet, but if I had gone to prison I would have lost this job."

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