Busted lottery winner Ryan Magee in happier times with his wife Margaret
FORMER millionaire Lottery winner Ryan Magee who splashed out on a Ferrari sports car and luxury home with heated swimming pool has been banned from driving.
The 34-year-old was kicked off the roads today for a year after he was caught behind the wheel while a banned driver.
At Derry Magistrates’ Court today, Magee cheated going to prison even though the district judge described his driving record as “absolutely appalling”.
Instead, judge Peter King banned Magee from driving the roads and ordered him to carry out 200 hours unpaid community service.
Magee had pleaded guilty to driving whilst disqualified and driving with no insurance when he was caught last December by police.
When nabbed, he wasn’t driving his flashy flame red Ferrari.
The petrolhead was behind the wheel of a family hatchback, a Ford Focus.
In 2008, Ryan Magee won more than £6.4 m on the Euromillions Lottery and lived a lavish lifestyle.
But within the space of five years it was all gone and he hadn’t a pot left.
He splashed the cash on a Ferrari 458 Italia car.
Then he bought himself a palatial home out in the countryside of Derry.
But by the summer of 2013, the wheels came off Magee’s life.
He put his home – which had a heated indoor swimming pool – on the market.
Gone was his beloved Ferrari.
Gone too was his mental health nurse wife Margaret.
And gone was his business Magee Fuels.
The IT specialist later said that he was moving back to the Waterside after his spectacular fall from grace.
In the space of a few years he gone from an an IT worker to be named in The Sunday Times Rich List of young people.
In December 2011, Magee hit the headlines again after he crashed his beloved Ferrari close to his home on the Glenshane Pass.
He was driving the 202mph Ferrari 458 Italia in treacherous conditions when he crashed.
The car went through a barbed wire fence, snapped several large wooden posts, bounced over rocks and ended up in a bush.
The Ferrari, which costs £173,000 new, only appeared to suffer minor damage in the incident.
Tags: