A lottery winner who decided not to ‘spend, spend, spend’ after scooping £11 million has ended up giving a huge slice of his fortune to the taxman – while loved ones miss out.
Former double-glazing salesman Paul Maddison was living alone in a modest £165,000 flat when he died last November aged 73.
Newly released documents show the four times married father left his remaining £3.8 million fortune – to his sister-in-law.
However all but the first £325,000 of the legacy is subject to inheritance tax of £1.4 million, meaning the total value of the estate is just over £2.45 million.
Maddison and former business partner Mark Gardiner shared a £22.6 million jackpot in 1995 – which for many years stood as Britain’s lottery win.
While Gardiner enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, Maddison moved more than 500 miles from Hastings in Sussex to Scotland where he became increasingly reclusive.
The legal documents lodged with the Scottish Sheriff Court show Maddison owned four properties in Perth worth £865,000 and had five bank accounts which contained around £3 million in cash.
He also left household contents and personal assets valued at £4,685 by an auctioneer. It seems Maddison hung on to properties as he gradually ‘downsized’ his lifestyle after once buying a fairytale castle to share with his Scottish bride.
The release of the documents further lay bare the bizarre and eccentric lifestyle of the multi-millionaire who seemed reluctant to share his good fortune with loved ones during his lifetime.
The beneficiary of Maddison’s will is Thelma Todd, the sister of his fourth wife Evelyn who died early last year.
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She lives with Thomas Todd in a £197,000 property close to the modest flat where Maddison was living when he died.
Legal sources who examined the will said Mr Maddison’s two daughters Sasha and Stacey – who both live modestly in Sussex – can each legally claim 25 per cent of any of the cash or possessions their father left.
Only in the event of Mrs Todd dying before the will was made public would the daughters have inherited the whole estate.
Maddison’s separate will states: ‘I direct my executors to make over the residue of my estate to the said Mrs Thelma Todd.’
There is no mention of Maddison’s son or previous wives in the bequest signed on February 10 last year – or his sister Annie Ferguson.
When Maddison quit Hastings for his new low key life he said he wanted to be closer to Annie who lives five miles from her brother’s final home on an estate where terraced homes sell for £130,000.
It is unclear what happened to the remainder of Maddison’s fortune. After his win he initially showed signs that he wanted to live the good life and he is also rumoured to have made generous donations to the Jehovah’s Witness movement.
Maddison was aged 44 when he hit the lottery jackpot with Gardiner in June 1995.
The pair were joint owners of double-glazing firm Croft Glass. While his partner carried on running the business, Maddison immediately announced he was taking early retirement.
At the time he was married to third wife Ruth who was deputy head at a local primary school. His first wife was Paulette Collins and the couple had two daughters Stacey, 45, and Sasha, 43.
The couple divorced and Paulette remarried but had died by the time of Maddison’s lottery win.
After a short-lived second marriage to Clare Slawson, Maddison wed Ruth in Perth in 1988.
A year after the win the couple headed back up there permanently and bought a luxury six-bedroom mansion in Scotland called Lettertabor Lodge.
But rather than draw them together the fortune had the opposite effect. Soon after the move Ruth reportedly left Maddison for another man with a £1 million settlement.
Suddenly alone in his new mansion, Maddison hired cleaner Evelyn McGillivary to help him run the house – and soon was making her his fourth wife.
They married on a Mauritian beach in 1997 on Valentine’s Day, at Evelyn’s suggestion, it’s understood.
Mr Maddison spent £100,000 renovating the mansion before selling it to a member of the Stagecoach transport business family for £450,000.
It appeared Maddison was beginning to embrace his multimillionaire status after buying his own castle – the magnificent 16th Century Robgill Tower, near Dumfries for a bargain £650,000.
But it appeared Maddison never felt at home in the sprawling property set in 40 acres.
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Maddison set up security cameras, remote-controlled front gates and an intercom system at the property which features six reception rooms, an indoor swimming pool, a games room, gym, indoor riding arena, a six-car garage and a separate two-bedroom gate lodge.
Neighbours rarely saw the couple leave the grounds of the estate and they were soon back in Perth. It’s believed they rented out Robgill Tower for a considerable sum for 15 years – before selling it for an enormous profit of £1.25 million three years ago.
When Maddison made his will in February last year he was living in a £450,000 house five-bed house but at the time of his death he had moved to the smaller flat.
The documents showed he also owned another four bedroom detached bungalow worth £400,000 and a ‘walled garden’ worth £75,000 in the historic city.
At the time of his death neighbours spoke of Maddison’s frugal and low profile lifestyle with one saying: ‘It is very beautiful around here, but not the sort of street that a lottery winner of his size would be expected to choose to live.
‘There was certainly no expensive car parked outside or any sign of wealth.’
Another said: ‘Paul was famously stingy – you know, tight with his money. He never got his wallet out if he could avoid it.
‘He was never first to the bar buying a round of drinks. If that happened he’d be gone. He was very, very careful with what he spent.
‘And he barely went out. You wouldn’t see him for weeks at a time. And when you did he wouldn’t catch your eye.’
Meanwhile Gardiner said of his former friend and business partner: ‘A dozen years or so ago I called him.
‘I spoke to his wife who told me they had found happiness with God and she told me that I should move up to Scotland and find happiness as well.
‘I suppose it’s possible he may have given the church a huge sum of money but it doesn’t seem like Paul to me.
‘The Paul I knew was very careful with his money and watched it like a hawk. I can’t believe he’d hand everything over to the church. It just doesn’t seem like something he’d do.’
Mr Gardiner, who lives in St Leonards on Sea, said: ‘If you ask me I think it’s far more likely he was living very frugally – because that’s the type of man he was – and they’ll find millions stashed away in the bank.
‘I hope that’s the case because he has two daughters and a son who could benefit from that money.’
Yet his neighbours of his closest family members were stunned to learn they were related to one of the UK’s biggest lottery winners.
Elder daughter Stacey lives with her partner and teenage son in the residential area of Woodingdean in a two bedroom bungalow bought for £214,000.
Neighbours say the family are ‘hard workers’ and ‘really nice, down to earth people’. Stacey is understood to work as a carer at a home.
One said: ‘They’re not rich, no-one’s rich these days are they? But I wouldn’t say they had a huge amount of money.
They’re just average like the rest of us round here’. Her sister, Sasha is a police officer with Sussex Police and lives with a fellow officer, Vicki Webb.
They share a £382,000 three-bedroom bungalow in Ovingdean, four miles outside Brighton.
Meanwhile a neighbour of Maddison’s sister Annie said: ‘I would hope if my brother won several million he would help me out.’