Father Goes In Hiding After �35 Million Lottery Prank

A father is in hiding from his furious famly after tricking them into thinking he had won �35 million in the Euro lottery jackpot.

The man, 46-year-old Fergus Frater, told family and friends that he had won the recent �35 million jackpot. His local newspaper, The Argus, also featured a story about the lucky "winner" on its front page.

He went so far as to promise his 25-year-old son Jordan a �5 million share of the jackpot and daughter Lorraine a �1 million cut of the winnings.

Ecstatic Jordan, a struggling roofer, quit his job. He and pregnant girlfriend started making plans and planned to move to Australia with their young daughter.

But he soon realised someting wasn't quite right when the name of the real winner, postal worker Angela Kelly, was revealed. Then they looked at the Frater's saved 'winning' ticket and it didn't match the lotto winning numbers.

"One minute I was a multimillionaire and the next I was back to having nothing," son Jordan said. He was forced to beg for his job back. "I could kill him ... but he's gone to ground and I've no idea where he is. We just can't work out what possessed him but he was telling everybody and the whole town thought he'd won."

Some locals have jumped to Frater's defence saying he genuinely believed he won the jackpot.

However, a barmaid from his local pub, where Frater used to drink, said he was often playing practical jokes and his claim was just a "prank that went too far".

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