On November 19, 2002, the life of Michael Carroll took an unexpected turn. To his 19 yearsthis young garbage collector became a millionaire overnight by winning the British National Lottery with a prize of £9.7 million (approximately USD 12.2 million). The news spread quickly, transforming his anonymity into sudden fame.
He abandoned his routine job to immerse himself in a world of luxury and ostentation. The newly acquired wealth seemed inexhaustible and Carroll did not hesitate to enjoy it to the fullest. He bought a majestic mansion, full of luxuries that I could only imagine before. Gold jewelry adorned their necks and wrists, while champagne trucks arrived regularly to supply their endless parties.. In his environment, they began to know him as “The Great Gatsby”, a figure that shone in the local jet-set with an excessive brilliance.
Carroll surrounded himself with a circle of friends eager to share their fortune. “I spent a lot of money on my friends. Vacations, gold chains, parties, all that,” he would later recall, aware of the ephemeral nature of his extravagances. His life became a continuous spectacle, a constant celebration of excess that soon began to show the cracks in him.
However, the initial euphoria soon faded. The opulence, which seemed eternal, began to crumble under the weight of reckless decisions and excessive spending. Michael tried to keep his fortune afloat through various investments, but each attempt turned into a complete failure. The mansiononce a symbol of its success, quickly deteriorated, becoming a sad vestige of its brief splendor.
Aware that his wealth was fading, Carroll clung to one last hope: reinvest what was left in lottery tickets, relying on a repeated stroke of luck. But fortune did not smile on him again. The house, now in ruins, was sold for a fraction of its original value. On the brink of desperation, he paid off his debts and returned to his old life as a garbage collector, facing reality with bitter resignation.
The newly acquired fortune had fueled a riotous lifestyle. Submerged in a whirlwind of drugs, alcohol and orgies, Carroll boasted of having had relationships with 4,000 women and starting his days with “three lines of cocaine and half a bottle of vodka.”
“The girls took off all their clothes and served cocaine on silver trays,” he said with a mixture of pride and nostalgia. This self-destructive behavior not only landed him in legal trouble, with him being arrested more than 30 times and imprisoned three times, but it also devastated his health and his marriage.
This unbridled life led him to legal problems: He was arrested more than 30 times and imprisoned three times for crimes of drug possession and dangerous driving, among others. “The only regret I have is not having had something to do, like a job,” he reflected on his days of non-stop parties and existential emptiness.
Drugs and alcohol seriously damaged his health. The former millionaire admitted that the lottery turned him into a “alcoholic with all the letters” and? consumed cocaine and vodka regularly from early in the morning. The outlandish lifestyle not only took a toll on her health, but also on her marriage, as His wife left him after discovering his repeated infidelities.
Over time, his house fell into disrepair, converted into what he described as a “dumping ground.” Finally, he sold his property for much less than he had originally paid, resigned to his new reality. Running out of options, Carroll paid his debts and returned to his old job as a garbage collector.
After spending all his fortune, Carroll filed for bankruptcy in 2013. Unwise investments, including a mansion he invested £325,000 ($411,000) in and £1 million ($1.2 million) in his favorite football club, Rangers, added to the financial collapse. “I don’t regret spending the money.”he said despite the adversities he faced after the bankruptcy.
He spent three months in a hotel for homeless people and fought for find a job due to its tumultuous past. He worked in biscuit factories and slaughterhouses, and in 2019 he moved to Scotland where he started working as a coal deliveryman. This move marked the beginning of a new stage in his life.
Michael Carroll finally found stability in Scotland, living in a modest one-bedroom apartment in Elgin. “I don’t look back with regrets, that’s for sure, I wouldn’t want to go back in time,” she said of his lottery experience. The difficulties did not diminish his enthusiasm for life; Now he enjoys his job and has remarried his ex-wife.
At 40 years old, Carroll claims to be a “law-abiding citizen” and has been without legal problems for more than a decade. “I’m on the right side of the law, believe it or not,” he said, proud of his transformation. Despite squandering his fortune, he maintains a positive mentality and he assures that he would not change anything about his past.
