Aberdeenshire Man Sleeps Through Lottery Win

An Aberdeenshire offshore worker who went to bed thinking he had won a few pounds on the lottery woke up to discover he was a millionaire.

Published 28th Nov 2014

An Aberdeenshire offshore worker who went to bed thinking he had won a few pounds on the lottery woke up to discover he was a millionaire.

George Kinghorn, 60, from Peterhead, quickly scanned an email telling him he was a winner upon his return from a holiday in Tenerife but dismissed it as a small prize and went to bed.

When he finally read the email the following evening telling him he was one of 25 £1 million winners on the EuroMillions Mega Friday draw on October 31, he thought it was a computer glitch.

His wife Sandra, 53, said she had to check the the email to make sure it really said £1,000,000 not £1,000''.

Rather than rest and count his winnings, Mr Kinghorn went back to work offshore for three weeks and was only able to finalise his win this week.

The couple will now be flown business-class to a private island off Australia's Sunshine Coast with seven friends for a jackpot-winners' holiday before their Tenerife tans have faded.

Mr Kinghorn said: I always play the Lottery online so I have had emails before with small wins.

We were driving back from the airport when I quickly scanned the email and thought it would be the same size of win that I'd had before.

I never once thought I'd scooped the jackpot. I didn't open it and when I got home I put my phone on charge and went to bed.

I only realised how much I'd won when I went online at 6.30pm the following night to put my lines on for the Saturday draw.

I actually turned the computer off and back on again - I was sure it was a mistake.''

He added: We really haven't thought about what we will do with the money; in fact we haven't even had chance to celebrate yet.

We have just been taking it all in. I like to play golf on my time off so I think I will take a few friends away for a week's golfing.''