Featured Image Credit: Mark Lipsham/Facebook
Topics: Money, Viral, World News
Gabriella Ferlita
You can’t buy happiness with £10 million - but you can buy a lot of stuff, and some may say that’s the same thing.
But a man who won just that amount in the lottery wishes he never won.
Mark Lipsham got his lucky day in 2017, when his numbers appeared on the Powerball in Auckland, New Zealand.
In the weeks prior to his winnings, he started to ‘dream numbers’ which he wrote down and used when he bought a ticket for the lottery.
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After he won, the then 53-year-old quit his role as a truck driver the next day, unaware of the inner struggles he was about to face.
Mark said to news.com.au: "I found that very hard and it led me to a place of problems – problems with myself because I wasn't operating how I always operated."
He recalled how he entered a state of 'depression, stress and frustration' as others started to expect handouts from the lotto winner.
Despite winning the huge lump sum, Mark continued to live in his modest home and opted not to make any spontaneous big purchases with the money, whilst he worried about how to handle that amount of cash.
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Two years after his epic win, the father-of-two was introduced by a neighbour to someone who ‘apparently knew about money’ - charging him £60,000 for them to coach him on his health, relationships, legal affairs and finances.
They were paid by Mark for their services, allegedly telling him they were ‘very expensive and likes to be paid when they ask for it’.
Mark then became more secure in his finances and planned to invest in property - to which the former truck driver claims to have given the advisor almost £1.5million in December the same year to make purchases for him.
After travelling for a few months with his daughters, the advisor stated the purchases were subject to delays and refused to speak to Mark.
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Mark then cut off his professional relationship with his assistant, realising his bank balance had dwindled to just £6.2 million.
He told the New Zealand Herald: "In the end, it really wasn't help at all. I actually got conned and out of quite a lot of money."
The former military personnel launched a legal battle in a bid to restore the £1.5 million the advisor allegedly conned from him.
Evidence in a court in Auckland then proved they either forged the Freelancing Agreement he signed for their services or bought it from an unauthorised website.
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In the end, the pair have managed to resolve the dispute outside of court.