Michael Carroll

Michael Carroll (born 29 March 1983 in Swaffham, Norfolk) is an Englishman who won the UK National Lottery in 2002. A former refuse collector, Carroll won £9,736,131 on the National Lottery in November 2002, aged 19. He enjoyed celebrity status for a time in the British tabloid media as the "Lotto lout" and the self-proclaimed "King of Chavs". Early life Carroll's mother worked in a canning factory and his father was a Royal Air Force engineer. When Carroll was 18 months old, his father was jailed in a military prison for 11 years for stabbing a couple after getting into a fight at a dance. His parents separated when he was seven years old; his father died from a heart attack when Carroll was ten. He had several stepfathers, one of whom would lock him in his room for hours after hitting him. Carroll stated he was dyslexic, had ADHD, and was barely literate by the time he finished secondary school. When Carroll was 13, he received a custodial sentence for shoplifting and was sent to the Hollesley Bay Prison in Suffolk where he reports that he learned to read and write. When Carroll won the Lotto at the age of 19, he was employed part-time as a refuse collector. At the time of his big win, Carroll did not have a bank account, and tried opening one at Coutts as recommended by Camelot. Coutts refused his application, which Carroll later ascribed to his extensive criminal record.