Geordies are luckiest Lotto players

Shipyard workers from Tyneside won more than £3m

Newcastle was the luckiest place in the country last year, according to Lottery operator Camelot.

Figures showed players with a Newcastle postcode won £38,798,331 during 2003 making it top for the amount of prize money above £10,000 paid out.

Among the big winners were three Tyneside taxi drivers, Bob Frazer, John Henderson and Ken Graham, who all won jackpots.

Mr Frazer was the biggest winner of the year with £14m from a Lotto Extra draw in April.

A syndicate of shipyard workers from Swan Hunter, in Wallsend, scooped more than £3m in August.

But the north-east of England was also where two of the biggest unclaimed Lottery tickets were bought.

In November the deadline passed to claim a £2.6m ticket which had been bought in south-east Northumberland for a Lotto Extra draw in May.

In February, a £2,928,214 jackpot ticket also bought in the Northumberland area remained unclaimed.

During 2003, a total of £498,161,341 was paid out in jackpot prizes creating 133 new millionaires.