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LOT MESS
I won the lottery with my girlfriend but she left me and took all the money – don’t make the same mistake I did
AS the Lottery advert famously said, you have to be in it to win it.
And Kirk Stevens thought he was in March last year when his live-in girlfriend won the jackpot in the National Lottery’s Set For Life draw — £10,000 a month for 30 years, worth in total £3.6million.
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Having let Laura Hoyle live with him rent-free, Kirk had come up with the idea that, instead, his lover paid £25 a week into the lotto.
And the arrangement paid off big time when they struck gold.
The pair made headlines as they posed with a lottery cheque written out in both their names — and said they were setting up a business together as GHOST HUNTERS.
But 18 months later, Kirk, 39, is reeling after Laura, 40, dumped him, moved into a smart new house and cut him off from the jackpot loot.
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He says: “Laura had told me we’d live the life of Riley if we won. Now she’s gone. She pulled the plug and took everything. She even wants our two dogs.”
Engineer Kirk met Laura through a pal in 2018 and she soon moved to his £240,000 three-bedroom detached home in Hucknall, Notts.
He says: “She asked me how much rent I wanted, but as far as I was concerned she was my girlfriend.
"I didn’t expect her to pay rent, I didn’t ask her for a penny.
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“Instead, she told me she’d buy us Lottery tickets. She spent around £25 a week and told me that if we won, we would both live it up.
“Our arrangement was never any more formal but I didn’t think I needed anything more. We were a couple, living together in my home. Besides, I never expected to win.”
Laura had recently been let go from a senior management role in a logistics firm and sold the Wolverhampton home she owned to shack up with Kirk.
He says: “Laura was out of work but had money from the sale of her house. She could have paid me rent but I didn’t want it. I was happy with the arrangement as it was.”
Laura continued to play the Lottery from her account after landing a job with delivery firm Hermes. For two week she ignored the message telling her she had won, believing she had only won a fiver.
Kirk says: “Both our names were on the cheque we posed with for pictures and every press release from [National Lottery operator] Camelot talked about both of us winning the prize together.
“Laura immediately quit her job and we bought a Porsche Cayenne. It was a really exciting time.
“I suppose you could say we were semi-sharing the money then. Laura was paying me £1,000 a month from the winnings and she encouraged me to pursue my master’s degree in mechanical engineering. I would never have done it but Laura said she would pay off my student loan.
“We had plans for the future. We were going to buy properties together and build an empire.”
As the pair dreamed of that future, Kirk’s mind turned to marriage.
He says: “We’d both been married before and when we first got together Laura told me she wasn’t bothered about tying the knot again.
“She said she’d change her name by deed poll and wear a ring but wasn’t interested in marriage.
“Things changed, though, and after two or three years together, I was getting to the point where I wanted to marry her. I loved Laura and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.
We had plans for the future, were going to buy properties together and build an empire.
“I even talked to her parents and asked them for her hand in marriage. They were over the moon, and I was really excited.
“I talked to Laura’s friends, bought an engagement ring and was going to propose — but then we hit a bad patch and I thought, ‘I can’t ask her now’. So I put it off. I even sent the ring back.
“After a while, things were back on track between us so I bought another ring. I was going to propose and, just then, we hit another bad patch.
“I felt Laura was reluctant to commit and that the money was part of the problem.”
Kirk was bewildered. He felt Laura was checking out of the relationship and that the mega-money win had become a difficult subject to talk to her about.
He says: “People used to ask me why I never quit my job [at aero engine maker Rolls-Royce in Derby]. I liked having a sense of purpose, something to get up for each morning.
“But it was more than that. The truth was, I never felt secure enough with Laura to give up my job. I could feel her pulling away from me — and things went from bad to worse.”
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While together, the couple had started going on ghost-hunt nights then used some of their winnings to turn their hobby into work.
Kirk says: “Ghost-hunting was Laura’s idea. I didn’t know what to expect when she booked us a ghost hunt after seeing it advertised on Facebook. But I was hooked.
“We started out with basic cameras and posted YouTube videos, and after we won the money we upgraded our kit.
“The National Lottery gave us a night-vision camera and Laura decided she wanted to turn this into a career.
“I’d be at work all week while she would be at home editing videos. Then we’d go out ghost-hunting all weekend together.
I felt Laura was reluctant to commit and that the money was part of the problem.
“Whenever I wasn’t at work we’d be off ghost-hunting so it isn’t true that I didn’t want to do things with Laura as a couple.”
But in June this year, after Kirk and Laura had attended a friend’s wedding in Bristol, Laura called time on their relationship.
Kirk says: “She just told me she didn’t want to be with me any more. Our relationship had gone downhill but I wasn’t expecting the split.
“I wanted to try to fix it but Laura wasn’t interested. It was like the money gave her confidence to throw it all away. She became snobbish and superior.”
After their win, the pair put a deposit on a £500,000 new-build home near Kirk’s place, in Linby.
But when the home Laura had bought for “them” was ready this summer, she moved in on her own, leaving Kirk alone.
He says: “She took lots of our stuff with her, too, so I’ve had to replace things. She’s even been demanding over our two dogs.
“At first, I didn’t know if it was a permanent split, so I didn’t mention the money. But when it became clear we were not going to work things out, I asked her: ‘What about our Lottery win?’ She said, ‘It’s not ours, it’s mine’.
“She made it very clear she wasn’t going to be splitting the money with me. Up until we split, Laura had been paying me £1k a month, but that stopped when she moved out.
“She claimed it was ‘rent’ and that she wouldn’t pay it now she’d left.”
Kirk insists he is owed something from the windfall they won while she lived rent-free with him. But it is a grey area because they were not wed and, although both names were on the publicity cheque, the ticket was bought in Laura’s name.
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Last night, Camelot confirmed that, despite the names on the fake cheque used for publicity, all Lotto wins are paid to an individual, even in a syndicate, and the winning account used was Laura’s.
Last night Laura had no comment. But Kirk says: “I just want ten per cent. If she continues to pay me £1k a month, I’ll happily walk away. She won’t even notice it.”
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