£8m lottery winner claims prize

But although the North Yorkshire winner, who has chosen to remain anonymous, has pocketed a cheque for nearly £8m, the lateness of the claim has cost them.

Since the draw on May 19, the £8m has been clocking up interest at the rate of about £1,150 a day.

That equals more than £150,000 - a fortune in itself to most people - and according to National Lottery rules it all goes to charity.

With winners only having 180 days to claim their cash, the region's newest multi-millionaire was still cutting it close, despite repeated appeals from lottery operator Camelot.

The winning numbers were 17, 19, 20, 32, 36 and 48 and they netted the ticket-holder £7,923,399.

A National Lottery spokesman said: "We are delighted that the winner of this jackpot prize has come forward and we hope that they will enjoy their win.

"It would have been awful if the ticket-holder had missed out on this substantial and life-changing amount of money.

"We would also like to remind all National Lottery players to check their tickets every time they play."

The biggest National Lottery prize left unclaimed was a ticket bought in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, which won £9.4m in July 2005.

The advice from the lottery operator to jackpot winners is to give their new-found wealth time to sink in before splashing out.

And once they have bought a house of their dreams - North Yorkshire's increasing house prices no longer a problem - the winners could go over the top.

They could buy a £1,054,620 pair of shoes by Stuart Weitzman - his Cinderella Slippers are made from 565 platinum-set diamonds. For £131,827 they could get Clive Christian to customise a fragrance for them - or they could become the kings of the road in a £730,000 Bugatti Veyron.

They could tell their friends about their fortune on a diamond-encrusted mobile phone from Goldvish, priced £520,000.

Naturally they would need to celebrate - and a 1787 Chateau d'Yquem Sauterne would be a snip at £33,000 a bottle