A man reportedly lied to his friends and family about winning the massive £171 million jackpot in the EuroMillions lottery.
Eventually, it was discovered that he had just been making it all up in order to tap the people around him for money.
False claim
33 year old Rob Strain from Newcastle texted his friends and family shortly after the draw on September 23rd in which the £171 million jackpot was won.
He told them that he had won the cash and was now going into hiding. He visited his local shop to gloat that he was the winner of the grand prize, which is the third biggest lottery jackpot in history.
He was a roofer who had lost his job in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and was out of work. He posted snaps of himself looking at a number of huge homes to buy.
In more claims regarding his ‘luxury’ lifestyle, Strain also told people that he was looking for private security and shopping for fancy vehicles.
The tall tales managed to captivate the people.
Lottery operator
Camelot, the lottery operator, had already announced at the time that a single ticket-holder from the United Kingdom had won the massive jackpot and had also claimed it.
But, their name had not been disclosed. The National Lottery’s Senior Winners’ Advisor, Andy Carter said that UK EuroMillions’ players had had an amazing year so far.
He revealed that the third largest prize of all time had been claimed and they were supporting the ticket-holder to help them enjoy their life-changing prize.
Ruse falls apart
However, it did not take long for Strain’s story to start falling apart. People became suspicious of him and his girlfriend when they discovered that the two were actually borrowing money.
Those who had fallen for Strain’s lies were devastated to learn the truth. This included one man who said that he had only wanted to give the two a helping hand by lending them money.
Running his own business, the man said that he felt sick after learning the truth. According to a family source, some people had fallen for Rob’s story and lent him money.
However, the source also said that most people in the family knew that Strain was deluded and was just lying about it.
He had gone to see three mansions, one that had a value of £3.9 million and had also been boasting about shopping for Bentleys.
According to them, they became suspicious when he asked to borrow a caravan from a woman to hide out for two weeks.
This is not something that a lottery winner would ever do. He had previously said that he had lost a job that paid £2,000 a month during the pandemic.
