8:33 am, May 5, 2023
A group of workers at a Scottish garage look set for a stellar bank holiday weekend after bagging a £1m lottery win.
Eleven members of staff at GPG Montrose Garage in Angus entered the recent EuroMillions UK Millionaire Maker online after forming a syndicate at work.
The team, consisting of mechanics, technicians, and office staff, are each set to pocket around £90,000 as a result of having the winning ticket.
Big plans have already been announced for the winnings with home improvements, cars and holidays all on the agenda for the coming months.
The syndicate was led by 56-year-old employee Lesley Forsyth, who initially believed the win was a scam, the Daily Record reports.
Forsyth, whose family runs the garage, told the paper: ‘For some reason we had both woken at around 4am and [my husband] Arthur went on to his phone and saw on his email there was news about our National Lottery ticket.
‘He clicked through to the National Lottery website to discover we had won £2.80.
‘We both went back to sleep and then Arthur woke again around 6am and went back on his emails and noticed there was a message saying congratulations you have won! Still half asleep, he didn’t really connect with what had actually happened.
‘He just started shouting, “oh my goodness, oh my goodness”. I wondered what on earth had happened. He said, “the garage, our syndicate, we have won £1M!” I said “no, this can’t be true, it must be a scam” and he just kept saying, “no Lesley, it isn’t. I am on the official National Lottery page and this really is true!”
‘We immediately called Cheryl, one of the syndicate members who looks after all of the payments and paperwork and made an excuse that she needed to come to our house. She could not believe it when she arrived and we told her we had won.
‘I think the news is still sinking in, you hear of people winning all the time but you just never ever think it will happen to you – a garage business in Montrose!’
Despite the life-changing sum, all but one of the winners are continuing to work at the garage. Earlier this week they all headed to a local beach to celebrate with a few glasses of bubbly.
The only member of the syndicate to leave his job has been Robert Pert, 66, from Montrose, who found out about the victory on the same day as his retirement.
He said: ‘Well this win couldn’t have come at a better time – on the day of my retirement. Definitely a reason for a very big and very special celebration!’
The other syndicate members included Arthur Forsyth, 57; Allan Stevenson, technician, 59,; Cheryl Milne, 28,; Laura Forsyth, 31, director; Laura Guthrie, 35, office team; Martin Guthrie, 30, technician and Raymond Nicoll, 47, workshop manager.
Main image: ©PA Media
