Huge £22million Lottery winner who bought castle with winnings found dead in flat
A Lottery winner who bagged a fortune within months of the launch of the competition was living alone in a modest flat at the time of his death.
Paul Maddison scooped half of a £22.5million jackpot in 1995 alongside friend and double glazing firm partner Mark Gardiner. He later used his money to move more than 500 miles from his home in Hastings to a castle in castle.
However, his marriage to wife Ruth ended shortly after when she left him for another man. The former double glazing salesman was found dead in December last year. Now it has emerged he was living alone in Perthshire at the time, the Daily Record reported.
Mark Gardiner and Paul Maddison
Papers related to his will show Paul – who married four times – left his £3.8million fortune to Thelma Todd. She is the sister of his fourth wife, Evelyn, who died early last year. Todd lives near Paul’s Perthshire flat. However, a huge inheritance tax bill of £1.4million means the total value of the estate was just over £2.45million.
Last year his former business partner said: “He was a really nice guy and we got on well together. “He could turn his hand to any job no matter how big or small and he was a lovely guy to work with.
“When we won the lottery he decided to retire. He's a bit older than me and he felt he'd done enough for Queen and country and wanted to try something different. He moved up to Scotland to be near his sister and we lost touch but I still had a fondness for him as he was a good guy. It's a shame we lost touch but he'd moved on to a different life and just wanted to draw a line under it.
“I'm shocked by Paul's death. It's really come out of the blue. He was too young to go. I'm sure he still had a huge amount to offer. We enjoyed some great laughs around the office and out on jobs together and I can't say a bad word about him. He was a friend as well as a colleague.
“We were very lucky, we won after playing it for just a few weeks. Even after we won, Paul's wife at the time said paying £50 a week had been awful waste of money which is hilarious. I'm quite shocked by the news to be honest. It is unexpected. He wasn't that old. It's a real shame.”