When Colin Weir and his wife Christine scooped a £161million EuroMillions jackpot back in 2011, it was a jackpot that was only surpassed eight years later when an unnamed player in Italy bagged £193million. However, Colin soon made a dint in that fortune spending a whopping £40m at a rate of £100k a week before his death.
Documents revealed that one half of Europe's second biggest EuroMillions winning couple burned through a portion of the massive lottery prize win at a rapid rate. By the time he died in 2019, aged 71, his share of the cash had shrunk by £40million.
One financial expert was reported by Daily Record as saying: “Spending £40million in eight years takes a bit of doing.” But the big cash winner didn't keep his windfall to himself. The former cameraman at STV may have splashed out on cars and luxuries - his will shows that he owned furniture, jewellery and artworks valued at about £212,000 - but he also pumped money into his favourite football club, Partick Thistle, and shared out his good fortune.
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According to the report, Colin also shared his fortune with friends and charitable trusts, and passed on money to his two children with Christine – Carly, 32, and Jamie, 30.
Colin had suffered years of ill health and he and Christine divorced last summer after 38 years of marriage. He signed over sole ownership of £3.5million Frognal House, near Troon, to former psychiatric nurse Christine. The couple reportedly bought the mansion, along with furniture and fittings, after a 10-minute viewing.
Colin died suddenly from sepsis and an “acute kidney injury”. At the time of his death, he lived in a £1.1million five-bedroom seafront home in Ayr, which he bought in June 2018 after his marriage split.
However, before his passing he considered the future of his favourite football club and its supporters. He bought a 55 percent stake in Partick Thistle a month before he died so he could donate the club to the fans and put its future in the hands of the local community.
Colin also partly owned three thoroughbred horses, including geldings Knighted and Felony, and Irish mare If You Say Run. His garage housed four luxury cars – a vintage Bentley Arnage, worth £10,000, a £28,250 three-year-old Jaguar F-Pace SUV, a £24,000 four-year-old Mercedes Benz E Class Estate and a 2019 Mercedes Benz V Class people carrier, valued at about £35,000.
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