He does odd jobs to make ends meet, claims welfare benefits, and lives in a £15 (US $30) a night guest house.
It's hard to believe that just three years ago, ex-British soldier Peter Kyle hit the lottery jackpot of £5.1 million (US$10.1 million).
Today, the 55-year-old divorcée has squandered all his winnings and is virtually destitute, reported The Daily Mail. It is claimed he also owes money.
A source told The Daily Mail that Kyle lost his money after making a string of ill-advised investments.
He now lives in a budget guest house where he earns his board and lodging by doing odd jobs for the owner.
The source said, "He had a golden opportunity to turn his life around — and then blew it. He took some bad advice from bad people and handed his money over too readily to them.
"Now he's got nothing and even owes cash."
Kyle won his fortune in February 2005 and splurged on a £550,000 house, a £40,000 Mercedes, a £40,000 Range Rover and another vehicle. He also gave money to his two children, aged 23 and 14.
Kyle has refused to talk to the British media.
These days, the former Royal Artillery gunner calls a £15-per-night guest house in his hometown of Plymouth home. It is next to a sex shop and opposite a tattoo parlor.
"Pete has been working at the hotel for a few months just to get by. He has his own room, marked private, and he spends a lot of time there.," an acquaintance said.
"He shuffles around and cooks breakfast for the punters and is a general dogsbody for the owner."
Reports say Kyle has been claiming benefits for several months, and in January, an anonymous creditor secured a county court injunction against him in Northampton for £590.
The huge house he used to own on the outskirts of Plymouth has been repossessed, say neighbors.
The current owner is believed to be a builder who did work for Kyle on the property but was not paid — and later negotiated a deal to buy it.
But some ex-neighbors of Kyle believe he got his just desserts.
Moira Johnson, 50, said, "Some people do get what they deserve — he really is a nasty piece of work. I had a run-in with him once when a friend of mine was stuck and I needed to take them a car battery charger.
"I knocked on his door and he started screaming blue murder at me right in my face, calling me every name under the sun. His language was appalling. No one liked him around here and everybody had had some run-in with him at some stage. We were very glad when he left."
Kyle has also been accused of refusing to give financial support to four of his siblings. They suffer from Huntington's disease, a rare genetic disorder which attacks the neurological system.
His ex-neighbors also described him as an arrogant spendthrift when he first won the lottery.
"He was very into his flashy cars," said one neighbor.
"This is a narrow private road and normally neighbors wait and let each other pass, but he would always barge down and force you to reverse. He was arrogant and foul-mouthed — not a very nice man at all.
"I sensed he was a bit of a loner, though. There weren't many visitors and I think he was single.
"It doesn't surprise me that he has lost his money, because he did a ridiculous amount of pointless building work and drove top-of-the-range cars. We never mixed with him at all."
He looks so happy in the photo. The article indicates he's divorced, but doesn't mention what happened to his wife & children, except that he gave some money to his 2 sons. I wonder if he got get divorced before or after he won the money?
Well, it was his money to blow I guess. Sad story, although he does sound like a miserable human being, according to his neighbors.
Quote: Originally posted by justxploring on Apr 14, 2008
He looks so happy in the photo. The article indicates he's divorced, but doesn't mention what happened to his wife & children, except that he gave some money to his 2 sons. I wonder if he got get divorced before or after he won the money?
Well, it was his money to blow I guess. Sad story, although he does sound like a miserable human being, according to his neighbors.
I think its safe enough to say
"the xtra spending money made things worse then it was b4 the win"
Well, on a postive note, he started off pretty good.
"Kyle won his fortune in February 2005 and splurged on a £550,000 house, a £40,000 Mercedes, a £40,000 Range Rover and another vehicle.
He also gave money to his two children, aged 23 and 14.
Kyle has refused to talk to the British media."
hmmm Looks like a smart cookie to me. Could this be a trick to draw unwanted attention off him. I bet he gave the bulk of winnings to his sons in a trust. WTG!
It sounds like he wasn't a well-liked man. He probably should of put a good amount of it in savings and laid of building so much and buying so many cars. He could have had a good life with that money. Oh well, live and learn.
Money can change people, some good, some bad. The more you learn about unfortunated winners, the less chance we hit the jackpot because God teach us valuable lessons through this people. It's just like we have small chunk of jackpots in our pockets already.
I learned that: 1) if you want to stay humble, play anytime when you get a chance, no matter how small jackpots are. 2) if you are big spenders wait until it get $50 Millions or above $100 Millions to play. When you've won, Even if you screw up, there will be some money left for you to live on while you've learned a big lesson.
What fools these mortals be! (Cited from one of our greatest writers/thinkers).
Lottery LP posters and unknowns, take heed: let the young man's alleged arrogance and his alleged pomposity be your guide. Since I didn't know him personally, I used the word...alleged -- because I didn't have proof.
There is something called "hindsight bias" that I think is an important consideration in these stories.
We have a tendency to make judgements first, then look for evidence afterwards that supports our position. It's very easy to look backwards and selectively remember.
The source said, "He had a golden opportunity to turn his life around — and then blew it. He took some bad advice from bad people and handed his money over too readily to them.
I would be out there knockin on those leeches doors for payback of money lent. If not paid back I would be knockin on their face.
Seems like everyone comes around asking money winners for investment money. About every lottery winner who went broke has the same tale of investment deals gone sour.
Quote: Originally posted by JackpotWanna on Apr 14, 2008
Well, on a postive note, he started off pretty good.
"Kyle won his fortune in February 2005 and splurged on a £550,000 house, a £40,000 Mercedes, a £40,000 Range Rover and another vehicle.
He also gave money to his two children, aged 23 and 14.
Kyle has refused to talk to the British media."
hmmm Looks like a smart cookie to me. Could this be a trick to draw unwanted attention off him. I bet he gave the bulk of winnings to his sons in a trust. WTG!
"He started off pretty good"?
The first thing he did was spend more than 10% on a house that undoubtedly required substantial annual upkeep, and another 2% on cars. Giving money to his kids may or may not have been a smart thing, depending on how much, and whether or not he set up trusts, but that further reduced his principal, and therefore his future income. That doesn't sound good to me.
The $8 million or so he might have had left is a lot of money, but in a safe investment it may mean a pre-tax income of $400k, and an after tax income of under $300k. That's very comfortable, but it's not especially rich.
Sounds like he didn't know how to either say "no" or research these "investments" or didn't seek good advice from others and with only (yeah, only) $10 million he spent over1.2M/12% of it right away as well, it's no real wonder he went broke so quickly. Maybe he didn't need a home worth over a million dollars, yeah property and well everything else is more expensive there but still he was pretty much setting himself up from the start, I wonder how much the taxes alone were for the property. Then he became a jerk though he probably was one before hand.
It may just be because I'm not in the situation (but I've love to be just as everyone else would) but I can't imagine what I'd spend even a million dollars on, aside from buying or building a home that would be excessive or certain investments that don't include "suggestions" from others. I seriously thought about my "wants" and they wouldn't even total half that, including buying a new home that would fit me and a couple vehicles, I could even include an absurdity or two (like a $33,000 70 inch HDTV that won't even be worth a quarter of that in a couple years) and still not make it to a million or even 500K. Of course I say this now and if I did win (and promptly be on the recieving end of a series of lightning strikes) that could always change and I could end up being another example of what not to do.
The Daily Mail is a crappy UK tabloid that unfortunately several media companies in the US take seriously, so maybe the story isn't entirely accurate but anyway I don't feel the least bit sorry for him if this is all true or even the comments on him.... You know what they say about a fool and his money.
If what is said about him is true, then I reserve my sympathies for his family who is going to have to watch him go under.
Really, with all of the lottery failures it is hard to imagine any excuse a person would have for this type of conduct. Professional financial advisors would not condone this type of wasteful, exorbitant, ignorant spending of money. This man must have known, like many of us, that a win of millions of dollars will very likely be the only time a large windfall will fall upon us and it is a GREAT responsibility.
The source said, "He had a golden opportunity to turn his life around — and then blew it. He took some bad advice from bad people and handed his money over too readily to them.
I would be out there knockin on those leeches doors for payback of money lent. If not paid back I would be knockin on their face.
Seems like everyone comes around asking money winners for investment money. About every lottery winner who went broke has the same tale of investment deals gone sour.
JAP, sometimes people lose because of greed but often it's believing that someone who tries to make a living by investing other people's money knows more than you do.
Sad, but everyone has to make their own choices in life: Right, Wrong, or Indifferent!
His is Indefensible!
He looks so happy in the photo. The article indicates he's divorced, but doesn't mention what happened to his wife & children, except that he gave some money to his 2 sons. I wonder if he got get divorced before or after he won the money?
Well, it was his money to blow I guess. Sad story, although he does sound like a miserable human being, according to his neighbors.
"the xtra spending money made things worse then it was b4 the win"
Well, on a postive note, he started off pretty good.
"Kyle won his fortune in February 2005 and splurged on a £550,000 house, a £40,000 Mercedes, a £40,000 Range Rover and another vehicle.
He also gave money to his two children, aged 23 and 14.
Kyle has refused to talk to the British media."
hmmm Looks like a smart cookie to me. Could this be a trick to draw unwanted attention off him. I bet he gave the bulk of winnings to his sons in a trust. WTG!
It sounds like he wasn't a well-liked man. He probably should of put a good amount of it in savings and laid of building so much and buying so many cars. He could have had a good life with that money. Oh well, live and learn.
Money can change people, some good, some bad. The more you learn about unfortunated winners, the less chance we hit the jackpot because God teach us valuable lessons through this people. It's just like we have small chunk of jackpots in our pockets already.
I learned that: 1) if you want to stay humble, play anytime when you get a chance, no matter how small jackpots are. 2) if you are big spenders wait until it get $50 Millions or above $100 Millions to play. When you've won, Even if you screw up, there will be some money left for you to live on while you've learned a big lesson.
What fools these mortals be! (Cited from one of our greatest writers/thinkers).
Lottery LP posters and unknowns, take heed: let the young man's alleged arrogance and his alleged pomposity be your guide. Since I didn't know him personally, I used the word...alleged -- because I didn't have proof.
There is something called "hindsight bias" that I think is an important consideration in these stories.
We have a tendency to make judgements first, then look for evidence afterwards that supports our position. It's very easy to look backwards and selectively remember.
The source said, "He had a golden opportunity to turn his life around — and then blew it. He took some bad advice from bad people and handed his money over too readily to them.
I would be out there knockin on those leeches doors for payback of money lent. If not paid back I would be knockin on their face.
Seems like everyone comes around asking money winners for investment money. About every lottery winner who went broke has the same tale of investment deals gone sour.
"He started off pretty good"?
The first thing he did was spend more than 10% on a house that undoubtedly required substantial annual upkeep, and another 2% on cars. Giving money to his kids may or may not have been a smart thing, depending on how much, and whether or not he set up trusts, but that further reduced his principal, and therefore his future income. That doesn't sound good to me.
The $8 million or so he might have had left is a lot of money, but in a safe investment it may mean a pre-tax income of $400k, and an after tax income of under $300k. That's very comfortable, but it's not especially rich.
Sounds like he didn't know how to either say "no" or research these "investments" or didn't seek good advice from others and with only (yeah, only) $10 million he spent over1.2M/12% of it right away as well, it's no real wonder he went broke so quickly. Maybe he didn't need a home worth over a million dollars, yeah property and well everything else is more expensive there but still he was pretty much setting himself up from the start, I wonder how much the taxes alone were for the property. Then he became a jerk though he probably was one before hand.
It may just be because I'm not in the situation (but I've love to be just as everyone else would) but I can't imagine what I'd spend even a million dollars on, aside from buying or building a home that would be excessive or certain investments that don't include "suggestions" from others. I seriously thought about my "wants" and they wouldn't even total half that, including buying a new home that would fit me and a couple vehicles, I could even include an absurdity or two (like a $33,000 70 inch HDTV that won't even be worth a quarter of that in a couple years) and still not make it to a million or even 500K. Of course I say this now and if I did win (and promptly be on the recieving end of a series of lightning strikes) that could always change and I could end up being another example of what not to do.
The Daily Mail is a crappy UK tabloid that unfortunately several media companies in the US take seriously, so maybe the story isn't entirely accurate but anyway I don't feel the least bit sorry for him if this is all true or even the comments on him.... You know what they say about a fool and his money.
If what is said about him is true, then I reserve my sympathies for his family who is going to have to watch him go under.
Really, with all of the lottery failures it is hard to imagine any excuse a person would have for this type of conduct. Professional financial advisors would not condone this type of wasteful, exorbitant, ignorant spending of money. This man must have known, like many of us, that a win of millions of dollars will very likely be the only time a large windfall will fall upon us and it is a GREAT responsibility.
JAP, sometimes people lose because of greed but often it's believing that someone who tries to make a living by investing other people's money knows more than you do.