Monday 13 June 2022 12:34 AM Meet the Aussies whose lives were destroyed after big Lotto wins trends now
Winning the lottery isn't just seen as the answer to most Australians' money worries, it's become a metaphor for the best luck imaginable in life.
But for some who hit the jackpot, their millions became a curse beyond their wildest nightmares, leading to downward spirals, poverty and even death.
And while many do enjoy lifestyles the rest of us can only dream about, research has found 70 per cent of lottery winners end up broke with a third declaring bankruptcy.
Sydney man Bazil Thorne (pictured) won £100,000 in a Sydney Opera House lottery in 1960, the equivalent of $1.7million today. Tragically his son Graeme was kidnapped and murdered
Graeme Thorne was kidnapped for a £25,000 ransom after his father won the lottery. He was murdered the same day
The decline tends to follow a clear pattern. The joy of winning and commitment to be careful and help others gives way as the temptation of the endless amount of money becomes too great to resist.
Usually it's self-inflicted. Most winners begin to spend so quickly - on everything from drugs, alcohol and sex to poorly-considered investments - that their millions evaporate.
A Perth man, Sherif Girgis, was 23 and working part time at a cinema in 2007 when he scored $30million - at the time the biggest lotto win in Western Australian history.
Mr Girgis made a series of investments under the guidance of real estate agent and City of Joondalup deputy mayor Russell Poliwka.
Sherif Girgis, 23, was working part time at a cinema in Perth when he scored the biggest lotto win in Western Australian history in 2007
He bought a pub, a defunct nightclub called Crush, an 80 foot catamaran for $880,000 and a block of land with waterfront views.
The bundle of investments was later found to be overpriced.
Though his ventures began to lose money and by 2012 he had just $5million left.
In 2014 he launched legal action against Poliwka demanding nearly $3.5million. He was awarded $2million.
The court accepted Poliwka provided 'misleading or deceptive representation' and 'negligent advice'.
Mr Girgis made a series of investments under the guidance of real estate agent and City of Joondalup deputy mayor Russell Poliwka (pictured)
Lottery wins can also badly affect the winner's judgement.
Newly married Kiwi man Trevor Cooper, who worked in a supermarket before winning $27million in 2012, was sadly divorced by 2015.
Mr Cooper, who went from pricing other people's groceries to entering his new expensive off-road cars for prize money, went as far as buying the South Auckland mansion he was married in.
He quickly bought 12 properties too, mostly with his new wife, Sharie Mitchell - before the marriage crumbled and he fell out with his mother, Shirley.
She told the NZ Herald her son didn't make a prenuptial agreement with his new wife, Ms Mitchell.
Sometimes the misfortune from a lottery win is caused by the jealousy and greed of family, friends or even strangers.
The saddest such case in Australia, and the one that changed the rules around announcing the identity of lottery winners, concerned the death of eight-year-old Sydney boy Graeme Thorne.
He was kidnapped for a £25,000 ransom after his father Bazil Thorne won £100,000 in a Sydney Opera House lottery in 1960, the equivalent of $1.7million today.
The kidnapper, Stephen Bradley, a Hungarian immigrant and poker machine factory worker, lured Graeme into his car, then tied him up in the boot.
He panicked when he opened the trunk and found the boy unconscious. He bashed him, then wrapped his body in a rug and dumped it in a vacant lot at Seaforth.
Kevin and Tania Parkes (pictured) were overjoyed when they won Powerball - along with 248 others
Mr Ing (pictured) claims he bought a ticket in the winning Powerball syndicate in February
Police would late track down Bradley after finding the rugmaker and identifying one of his dog's hairs in it.
Police later said Graeme Thorne probably died within 24 hours of being kidnapped, from asphyxiation, a skull fracture, or a combination of both.
Bradley was found guilty and sentenced to life behind bars. He died in Goulburn jail in 1968.
Since the Thorne case, lottery winners in Australia can request anonymity.
But that didn't help Tamworth's Maria Devrell, who was killed by a family friend she handpicked to help her manage her $5million OzLotto win in 2011.
Trevor Cooper (pictured centre), who worked in a supermarket before winning $27million in 2012 was newly married and then divorced by 2015. He didn't sign a prenup agreement with his wife
One of the expensive off-record vehicles Mr Cooper started racing when he quit
