Family's fury after father's hoax claims he won £35m lotto jackpot

Lying Fergus Frater, 46, duped his relatives into believing he had scooped the massive win as a practical joke, promising to share the winnings.

Mr Frater promised his son Jordan, 25, a £5 million share of the jackpot, and told his sister Lorraine that she would get a £1 million cut of the winnings.

He also fooled the local newspaper The Argus, who splashed the story on their front page.

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But the scam soon came to light when the name of the real winner, Angela Kelly, was revealed and unemployed Mr Frater disappeared from his home town of Littlehampton, West Sussex.

Yesterday, Jordan said: "One minute I was a multimillionaire and the next I was back to having nothing.

Jordan rang his boss to say he would be quitting his job and he and pregnant girlfriend Lucy Scrivens planned to immigrate to Australia with their young daughter.

But after learning the truth the struggling roofer was forced to ring his boss and ask for his job back.

"We're so skint so it was a dream come true," he said when he first discovered the news of the win.

"I could kill him ... but he's gone to ground and I've no idea where he is.

"He's never done anything like this before.

"We just can't work out what possessed him but he was telling everybody and the whole town thought he'd won.

"When I find him, we'll have words but at the end of the day he's my dad."

Mr Frater's sister, Lorraine told The Argus her brother told her he was planning to use the money to move back to his native Scotland.

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She said: "He told me he won the lottery and has just totally disappeared off the face of the Earth ever since."

Some locals jumped to Frater's defence yesterday with friends insisting he genuinely believed he won the £35.425,411.80 Euromillions rollover.

Landlady of the Marine pub, in Littlehampton, Penny Ward stood by her friend.

She told the Argus: "I think he believed he had won to be honest. It was only today we found out who really won it."

However another barmaid from another Littlehampton pub, where Mr Frater used to drink, said he was often playing practical jokes and hinted his claim was just a "prank that went too far".