Gay man loses battle to make his £100m Euromillions winner dad give him money for life
A gay man who tried to sue his lottery winning dad for a lifetime of handouts has lost his court battle.
Michael Dawes, 32, tried to cliam that his father had promised him money for life, after winning £101m on Euromillions.
Former factory worker Dave Dawes, 53, his father, and his wife Angela, 49, won the money in 2011.
Michael took the couple to court claiming they had been “ungenerous in spirit” by refusing to continue sending him money.
Central London County Court heard that Michael was given £1.6m after the win, but funds stopped after a drunken birthday row.
This included £500,000 on a house in Portsmouth and nearly £250,000 on family and their friends.
His father claimed he was burning through the money too fast, and his step mother told him to eat in McDonalds instead of lunching at The Ritz everyday.
Michael and his civil partner, James Beedle, 34, were spending as much as £30,000 a month at one point.
The court also heard Michael and James, who gave up their jobs, had demanded a £5 million lump sum from Mr Dawes.
The judge labelled their spending as “astonishing” and “way outside their means”.
Delivering his verdict, the judge said: “Michael took this as a demonstration that his father would cough up whenever asked, and this therefore buttressed his strange conclusion that his dad would financially support him for the rest of his life.”
He added: “There was no basis on which any rational or normal human being could conclude they could go back for more money whenever they wanted.”
The judge ruled against the the gay couple, saying his father’s previous “largesse” did not mean he had an expectation of further bail-outs.
It’s not the first issue of a Lottery win making life hard for a gay son.
A gay man who won more than $15 million on the lottery has asked Reddit how much he should give his homophobic parents.
He says he originally planned to pay off his parents’ mortgage – even though they disowned him when he came out.
However, his folks dismissed the offer and immediately demanded a quarter of his win.
