A GROUP of North-East welders are celebrating after they shared a £141,022 win in the National Lottery's Lotto game.

The nine syndicate members matched five numbers and the bonus ball in last Saturday's Lotto rollover, and will each get £15,699.

The winners work at G Nicholson (Engineers) Limited, of Blue House Lane, in Concord, Washington, and the syndicate is headed by Paul Pattison, 42, of Springwell, who has been there for 25 years.

For the past year, he has been buying the lucky dip tickets at a garage for each Saturday and Wednesday draw. He said: "I always keep the tickets in my locker at work, but could not check the numbers until Tuesday because I was off.

"When I took the tickets into the garage to be checked, I was amazed when I was told I should contact Camelot. I thought we must have had a win, but when I heard the news about just how much, I rushed and told the lads. Everyone was so excited."

Colleague Raymond Keegan, of Washington, plans to spend some of his money on his wedding in June.

Other syndicate members -Mr Pattison's brother, Fred, 43, Steve Mahone, Martin Harrison, his son Matthew, 18, David Gregory, Albert Black and Andy Ramsay, all of Washington, plan to buy cars, holidays or pay off their mortgages.

The winning numbers were 14, 22, 25, 27, 45, 47 and the bonus ball was 8. This Saturday, there is an estimated £8.5m Lotto jackpot and £8.7m Lotto Extra jackpot.