Man who won £5.4 million on lottery ended up homeless after one mistake 'destroyed his life'

A lottery winner who was able to bag the 6.5 million Euro (£5.4 million) jackpot was left penniless after poor financial advice allegedly drained his savings.

In December 2005, Spanish builder Francisco Guerrero's life would change forever after he purchased the winning ticket for the country's BonoLoto lottery.

If we were to have earned the same amount of cash through his career as a builder, Guerrero would have to have worked for around 270 years.

Guerrero didn't initially realise the scale of his life-changing win as a change from Spanish Pesetas to Euros had him initially believing he'd only won the equivalent of £33,000.

When he eventually realised his winnings were much, much higher, Guerrero was determined not to splash the cash and instead opted to invest his millions.

However, the Cadiz native didn't know 'anything about banks' and decided to seek advice from a local banker.

Which surely sounds like the most sensible thing you could do, right?

Francisco Guerrero would win 6.5 million Euro (£5.4 million) in 2005 (Getty Stock Images)

Unfortunately for Guerrero, he would receive poor financial advice from the bank he spoke to, ultimately losing his entire fortune in a series of high-risk, high-reward financial products.

Claiming that he remains unsure to this day about the document he signed nearly two decades ago, he told El Pais (via The Mirror): "[He] told me that the money would be in a good place, that it was fixed term without risk.

"I didn't even know what it was. I trusted them blindly and they destroyed my life."

For years, Guerrero had left the money untouched, convinced that he had done the right thing in setting both himself and his children up with savings for the future.

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However, when the self-employed builder found himself in need of a knee operation, he went to his local bank to withdraw the funds needed for the surgery.

Only to discover the account was completely empty.

The builder has fought three separate legal battles with the bank over the years, in 2016, 2018 and 2020.

But poor financial advice means he's never seen a penny of it (El Pais)

His multiple legal wins would see the Provincial Court of Castellón force the bank to pay him 1.06 million Euro in interest as well as a further 1.2 million Euro to his children.

However, a 2020 report from EuroWeekly stated that debts generated from the poor investments meant that Guerrero wasn't able to see any of these funds and left him as a 'squatter' in his own home.

"I have never been to school; I don’t even know what profitability is," he added.

"You give me a pick and a shovel and I will do a job for you, but I don’t know anything about banks."