National Lottery winner working as a glazier 30 years after scooping £11million

He and his then business partner Paul Maddison scooped a huge sum of £22,590,829 ­which they split equally between them.

But nearly 30 years on and the East Sussex man is back working an ordinary job as a glazier.

He made series of bad investments and divorced four times, the last marriage ending in 2004.

Despite having made a number of poor money decisions, Gardiner put £2million of his money into setting up his own business, Croft Glass.

He now spends his days driving his van to carry out day-today window work himself.

"Don’t get me wrong, if I won the lottery now at 61 — I’d have done so many different things. I’d have stopped work," he admitted to The Sun.

"I decided to invest money into it.

"I wanted to see if I had the ability, the skill and the ­knowledge to take it further. It was like a test and I have passed."

The Briton is involved in every aspect of the business, including measuring up, surveying and taking new orders for windows.

While he no longer has anywhere near the money he did when he won the lottery, Gardiner is satisfied that he doesn't have to worry about being short of money.

Explaining his ability to take a laid back attitude in life, he added: "I don’t worry that if I take the day off I won’t be able to pay my staff’s wages."

The rest of his money was spent on purchases such as a football club in the East Sussex town of Hastings and on a home in Barbados.

Gardiner added that he still plays the lottery every week - and he still uses the same numbers that won him the jackpot all those years ago.