Portslade IT man becomes a Euro millionaire (From The Argus)

Portslade IT man becomes a Euro millionaire

9:43am Monday 6th August 2012 in News By Anna Roberts, Crime reporter

A computer programmer has found out he has become a millionaire – on the day he was going to ask for a pay rise.

Alex Wheatley, who works for an IT company in Shoreham, is celebrating his newfound millionaire status after scooping a EuroMillions fortune.

Now the 26-year-old, who lives with his parents and sister Hannah in Portslade, will buy a new home.
On the same day Mr Wheatley won £1,000,000, he also won £6.

The win was particularly lucky as Mr Wheatley, who plays Lotto regularly online, only dips into EuroMillions when the jackpot has started to roll.

The estimated top prize for the opening night of the Olympics, Friday July 27, was £118 million so Mr Wheatley played using the £6 he already had in his online National Lottery account.
Buying three Lucky Dip tickets, he then forgot about it.

Mr Wheatley said: “Because I always play online, I tend to play and forget about it so it wasn’t until Sunday night that I checked my emails on my tablet and saw there was a message from National Lottery about a win.

“I thought it was going to be another tenner or £2.60 – which seems to come up a lot – but then staring me in the face was £1,000,006.

“I quickly logged on with my laptop because I was sure there must be some mistake because it was such an odd number for a top prize.

“I then walked into the living room where mum and dad were watching Sunday night TV and said ‘I don’t want to jump the gun but I think I’m a millionaire.’ “It was amazing to tell people about the win and I was astounded at the responses, everyone was so happy for me.

“One of my closest friends even shed a tear, which then set my sister off and I was not far behind. We definitely needed the tissues to hand.”

Despite being one of 100 millionaires created in the special Olympics celebration on July 27, Mr Wheatley still went to work on Monday morning.

He said he wanted to buy a home but also planned a few treats.

The petrol-head said he was thinking about buying a white Citroen DS3 and was planning a boys’ trip to the Nuremburg Circuit in Germany.

He finished: “I always said if I won, I’d pay off my parents’ mortgage. They’ve done so much for me so it will be great to do that for them. My sister, Hannah, has already decided she will be moving in with me to the new house but it will be nice to take her on a shopping spree too.”