A MAN who scooped £10million in a lottery jackpot win still lives in the same house and has sold all his cars but one big purchase still makes him cry.
Former bus driver Peter Lavery, then 34, won just over £10.2m in May 1996 and initially thought a pal was playing a trick on him, when he was told he’d won.
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Still in a state of shock, the following day Peter stuck the winning ticket in his pocket and did a five-hour shift on the buses.
He requested a day off on the Monday so he could get his winnings and by Wednesday he’d ditched his job and was in a luxury hotel in St Lucia in the Caribbean with 10 of his family and best mates.
Peter, now 61, grew up in working class Belfast and remembers having conversations about what he would do if he did have a big win on the national lottery but never thought he would actually win.
His huge win though meant that in the blink of an eye he’d gone from earning £200 a week driving buses to being one of the richest people in Northern Ireland.
With the money burning a hole in his pocket he indulged in excess – eating, drinking and partying, along with his family and friends.
Along with the trip to St Lucia, he also paid for 22 people to go to New York for St Patrick’s Day.
He bought his family home for his siblings and bought himself a big house for £300,000 in the Golden Triangle, an upmarket area beloved by multi-millionaire footballers.
Peter still lives there, along with his wife Vikki, a former nurse and their three dogs – with the property having been extended three times.
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He also splashed the cash on cars, spending some half a million in the first few years on Jaguars, Bentleys and a couple of four-wheel drive cars.
Nowadays, Peter isn’t interested in cars and sold them all apart from a Mercedes-Benz.
He has also indulged in a number of first-class flights and some 20 years ago he treated his two sisters and younger brother to a flight on Concorde.
Peter and Vikki, 52, nowadays go on holiday three times a year and particularly love cruises, having been on at least 80 so far and especially enjoy shopping in Miami.
Their house is decked out with a gym and steam room, en-suite bathrooms with jacuzzis and a garden packed with ornaments.
Although there is one thing in the home that still makes him well up – a bar big enough to fit in 160 people.
Peter told the Mirror: “I’m still living in the same house I bought 27 years ago and I’m very happy. We have five bedrooms, three sitting rooms, a big double garage and a bar for 160 people – though I cried my eyes out because I don’t drink anymore.”
Just before his 40th birthday his party lifestyle caught up with him and realised he had to stop drinking or he wouldn’t be around much longer.
His doctor told him he had Type-2 diabetes and had to stop his wild lifestyle.
Peter said: “I didn’t drink every day but once I got a drink in me I just didn’t want to go home so I would be out in Belfast until four or five in the morning. It’s nothing to be proud of.
“I didn’t have liver or heart problems but my sugar levels were going in the wrong direction and my doctor, who’s a good friend of mine, told me to change my lifestyle or I’d be injecting insulin forever.
“I’m scared of needles, so I thought about it and I decided that I would have one big birthday party on my 40th and then knock the drink on the head.”
While has had the odd drink in the years since, he’s stuck to his promise.
Being teetotal is somewhat ironic considering Peter’s biggest project to date has been the conversion of the Titanic Pumphouse into the first whiskey distillery in Belfast for 87 years, which opened in April this year and employs 40 people.
Peter, who left school with no qualifications, has also been investing in the local community, buying up property around Belfast and setting up a charity, The Rita Charles Trust, named after his parents.
Within the first five years of it being established, he poured around £2m into different charities and raised thousands more in fundraisers.
He has particularly helped the Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke charity, after his dad died from a heart attack just 14 months before his win.
His mum had died at the young age of 44.
A BBC film, to air today, follows Peter as he works to deliver two tourism enterprises for Belfast – the distillery, complete with a visitor centre, which makes his own Titanic Whiskey brand and a refurbished licensed tour boat for the River Lagan.
Peter has now gained the title ‘the spirit of Belfast’ thanks to his legacy of putting his money into the community.
He said: “I just want to create something that lasts and gives people a future. It might be time to slow down, but I don’t think I’ll ever retire.”
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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk
