Have you given up on finding that lottery ticket you lost? Well you might want to look a little harder.

An Australian grandfather has become an instant millionaire after finding his lost ticket while cleaning his car - a year after the winning numbers were drawn.

The unidentified winner from Newcastle in New South Wales bought the ticket in January 2016 and found it at the bottom of a shopping bag.

"I was cleaning rubbish out of my car on the weekend and thought it was time to put new cartons in the bottom of all my bags as they were starting to get torn and I got quite a surprise," he said.

"The ticket was hidden in underneath it and I didn't know it was there.


"I'm glad I didn't just get the old bags and take them to the dump."

He checked the numbers online and found he had won just over one million Australian dollars (£620,000).

"I thought I'd been pretty stupid. I was thinking 'Wow! I could've thrown this out!' It got very close," he said.

"There's a few people who are going to benefit from this. I want to help the kids with their house payments and the grandkids with their education.

"It will smooth the troubled water in front of them."

Cheryl Tuckerman, who owns the newsagent where the man bought the NSW Lotteries ticket, said: "You wouldn't believe how many customers we've had coming in during the past year asking whether the winner had been found.

"We're excited to be able to tell them that now it has."