LUCKY DRAW
I made stupid direct debit mistake signing up for Lottery 8 YEARS ago… & now £500k prize has been claimed
Mark Wilson, 62, says he's never been lucky apart from finding his wife Billie
A MAN made a silly mistake with his direct debit when he signed up for the Postcode Lottery eight years ago and now a £500,000 prize has been claimed.
Engineer Mark Wilson, 62, made the ticket gaffe when he was setting up his account.
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He said: "I made a mistake when we were doing the Direct Debit and I pressed three instead of one, and I never bothered changing it because it's going to charities, so that's good.
"I then added another [ticket] through PayPal because I didn't think the Direct Debit was working. I still don't think it's real, I'll wake up in a minute."
In hindsight, it turned out to be a good move and he won an enormous £500,000 thanks to him playing the with four tickets when his postcode came up in the draw.
Mark said: "This has changed our lives forever - I'm a half-a-millionaire.”
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The vinyl collector now plans on adding to his stash of over 4,000 records, and he'll even splash out on a house extension and loft conversion to make space for them all.
Mark landed the windfall with four neighbours in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, after WD6 2SL won the weekly £1 Million Millionaire Street prize.
Every ticket was worth £125,000.
Mark first signed up for a subscription eight years ago and played with one ticket before cancelling for a short time.
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He then re-joined in December 2022, intending to put on just the one ticket, but despite realising his mistake he continued to pay for four tickets every month.
And now that decision has paid off four times over as he and his wife Billie celebrated receiving four £125,000 cheques.
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Vinyl lover Mark is now set to completely transform his house to make more room for his extensive record collection.
Mark said: “You have no idea how much room 4,000 records take up. We can get an extension and a loft conversion now."
Mark started growing the LP collection over 50 years ago and isn't planning to stop now.
He added: "From rock, pop, classical, reggae, you name it, I've got it, but I've still got my eye on more.
"I don't know what the world would be like without music. I love sitting down with a cuppa and relaxing to some music."
Mark's vast collection includes all of The Beatles box sets and one of his prized possessions is a 1971 original pressing of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
The family's house-expansion plans will also include a new bathroom.
Mark admitted that his wife has been asking him for a downstairs bathroom since they moved into the property over three years ago.
Mark jokingly said: "You can have yo ur toilet downstairs now, dear. That's all she's interested in."
Supermarket worker Billie said she'll now be able to reduce her working hours, but she has no intention of quitting.
Mark said, "She still wants to work at Tesco."
She grinned and replied, "Yeah, but I won't need to do as much overtime."
Despite his bumper win, Mark reported in for his shift at work, moments after receiving the overwhelming news.
Mark, who works at dairy company Arla Foods, said: "I've got a normal day ahead of me, and I finish at 6pm, but I have to say my mind probably won't be on the job."
The couple are now looking at a few more holiday options but they've been forced to cancel recent trips.
Billie, who has autism, can often find social interaction challenging, meaning the couple had to cancel a holiday to Egypt, and also missed Taylor Swift's sold-out Wembley show.
Mark added: "It was really sad because she's always wanted to see Taylor Swift and we still have the tickets sitting there unused. But, who knows, with this money one day it might happen."
The pair, who got married two and half years ago, already have a staycation booked in the Peak District but might look into going to Australia or America in the next few years.
Mark said: "I've never been lucky apart from finding Billie. She's changed my life and whatever we'll do with the money, we'll put it to good use."
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The couple are looking forward to celebrating with their family, enjoying a bottle of non-alcoholic prosecco and a record spinning in the background.
The other four winners on Hackney Close bagged £125,000 each.
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