Lotto winners give £3.9 million to company they work for

A syndicate of 13 workers who won £3.9 million on the lottery have given the winnings to the boss of the company they are employed by to help it through the recession. Andy Whitaker, 44, has managed to keep the family-run motor repair company going despite a dismal year for the car industry.

Now he is to be helped after his winning employees asked to pledge much of their £300,000 shares into the firm ASK Rewinds in Accrington, Lancs so they could become investors.

Mr Whitaker, who is also part of the winning syndicate along with a fellow director, plans to plough his winnings back into the firm too to safeguard the jobs of their 18 workers.



Mr Whitaker, whose wife Jayne was also part of the syndicate said: "Everybody is obviously really delighted to scoop such a big win but its also great feeling that a lot of the lads have got the firm so close to their hearts and want to be a part of it.

"Normally you hear about people wanting to spend their Lotto winnings on themselves and high living but its great the workforce are thinking about their futures too - despite it not being as good time for savers. We're going to have a staff party to celebrate and I think everyone will be enjoying the win with their families. But we'll go back to normality on Monday. Despite the credit crunch and all these companies going under, we have been holding our own and the company is doing fine .

"But we are planning to injecting cash into the company and it's nice to know we have a safeguard."