A MAN who won £9.7million ($15.5m) on Lotto has squandered it and is now an alcoholic, earning £75 ($120)-per-day as a painter and decorator

Nine years after he famously turned up to collect his winnings wearing an electronic tag, 27-year-old Michael Carroll has turned up in a court again for breaching a community order for drink driving, MailOnline reported.

Carroll, who has a string of criminal convictions, frittered away almost his entire fortune on wild parties, cocaine, prostitutes, luxury cars, chunky gold jewellery and cash hand-outs to hangers-on.



He made the lives of neighbours a misery by buying a 1.2 hectare field to stage demolition derbies in old banger cars behind his former home in Swaffham, Norfolk.

The field was left littered with the remains of dozens of his crashed and burned out cars. At one stage his antics became so bad that council officials set up a hotline for neighbours to report disturbances he was involved in.

Carroll was finally forced to sell his dream home for a £600,000 ($970,000) loss last August after wrecking it.

He started working as a painter after going on the dole.

Ian Graham, defending Carroll, told how his life fell to pieces.

"He is an alcoholic, but he has been very honest about his alcohol issues with the probation service.

"He continues to drink heavily and it has now become far more than social drinking.

"He is now working as a painter and decorator and not troubling the state by claiming benefits. He is back at square one and just wants to be left alone."

Carroll was spared jail last September after he was caught driving his car while nearly four-times the drink-drive limit near his home in Downham Market, Norfolk, England.

He was given a 16-week prison sentence, suspended for a year, 120 hours unpaid work and ordered to attend probation appointments and an alcohol programme.

Mr Graham added: "We are all aware of his own limitations and that is why he was targeted by so many undesirable people."

The former dustman arrived at court carrying a holdall bag because he expected to be jailed - he was spared having to serve the suspended 16-week sentence.

He said after the hearing that he was "relieved" not to be going back to prison.

"For two years no one has given me a chance, but when this job as a painter and decorator came along, I just had to take it," Carroll said.

"I am really trying hard to get back on my feet, but if I had gone to prison I would have lost this job."