Father-of-four scoops £8.5m lottery jackpot days after being made redundant

"They never win," she declared.

But Mr Chester ignored her advice. Thank goodness.

He went ahead and handed over £5 for five tickets - and scooped £8.5million.

Scroll down for more ...

The 31-year-old computer engineer, who had taken voluntary redundancy only two weeks earlier, was relishing the knowledge that finding a new job was suddenly not such a priority.

In fact he had only decided to quit his job in the Channel Islands because it had meant long periods of separation from his wife Kate and their four children.

He is planning to spend the foreseeable future spending as much time as he likes simply being a family man.

First on the spending list is a new home. The couple have been renovating a house on Guernsey but five months ago Mrs Chester moved with the children to her father's home in Margate, Kent.

They saw each other every other weekend but the separation was too hard for them to bear and Mr Chester threw in his job to join them in Margate where they are squeezed into two bedrooms.

Now they will be able to take their pick of fabulous properties.

Scroll down for more ...

Mr Chester also has his eye on a Chrysler Voyager people carrier to ferry the family around.

And the children will be heading off to EuroDisney in Paris at half term. Mr Chester also plans to buy them all Manchester United season tickets as an "outrageous" treat.

And all thanks to a spur of the moment decision to splash out on a Lucky Dip at his local supermarket. "I pulled out a £5 note and said 'five tickets please'," he recalled.

"We never usually buy more than three lines, but for some reason on that day I did.

"And it was a good job I did because it was the fourth line that won it for us.

"I said I wanted a lucky dip and my wife Kate said "Don't do that, lucky dips never win".

Last Friday, Mr Chester popped into a newsagents for a pint of milk near his father-in-law's home in Margate. While there, he decided to check the Lotto tickets he had bought the Saturday before.

He said: "I asked the man behind the counter if he could check my tickets. He printed off the numbers and said I needed to make a claim.

"It said I'd got the jackpot and I thought I'd won £850,000. It wasn't until I had another look that I realised I had actually won £8.5million. I nearly passed out and ran home to tell Kate.' His wife did not believe him.

"I just thought he was joking," she said. "I just couldn't believe it and I still can't."

Mr Chester added: "They say that everything happens for a reason and this win is an absolute dream come true. We are just so delighted.

"It has been a terrible time but now all of a sudden, 2007 seems quite a good year for us."