Dad who won £6m Lottery jackpot and then FLED the UK because friends begged him for cash has been living in modest £200k North London flat

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

A lottery winner who was driven out of Britain after greedy relatives begged him for cash has been living in a modest flat in North London.
Roger Robar said his life became a 'suffocating hell' after winning £6 million in 1996 when he quickly became bombarded with people asking for handouts.
The seafood chef was inundated with letters and eventually gave away £1.5 million to good causes.
But the stress of his fortune ended his marriage, stopped him from having more kids and severely impacted his mental health.
Martinique-born Roger eventually opened up his own restaurant in London but fled Britain to France just three years later.
Now 29 years after his win, he is back in the UK, and was living in a small £200k flat in Enfield until just a few months ago.
Sadly for chef Roger his ground-floor flat was gutted in a fire with damage from the blaze seen around his front door and windows.
A friend told MailOnline: 'He used to live here, until his flat caught on fire about two months ago. I have no idea what caused it.
Now 29 years after his win, he is back in the UK, and was living in a small £200k flat in Enfield until just a few months ago (Pictured: The block of flats where Roger lived before the fire)
'The whole flat is completely black, you can even see it on the front door. Thankfully, no one got hurt and my flat wasn't damaged.
'I've got no idea where he's gone or what he's doing. I haven't heard from him.'
Another neighbour said the 'whole block was filled with black smoke' on the day of the devastating fire.
Apart from the charred brick work around Roger's destroyed flat and a pile of rubbish outside, the building looks like an average suburban block.
It is unclear where Roger is now, but it seems he is no longer living the luxurious lifestyle of a multi-millionaire.
According to social media posts, he was running a firm called 'Roger's Catering Service', where he described himself as a 'Master Chef'.
In an advert from 2023, Roger revealed prices for his meals including steak and chips for £10.
The post said: 'Results after one month to lose weight, diabetes/blood pressure.
'Only £10 for three of the best recipes including food and juices.'
Roger's Facebook page is full of him cooking dishes including fish stews and desserts.
Many of his Facebook videos of him cooking are played alongside relaxing and chilled music.
In other pictures he is posing in chef whites, a Liverpool top or relaxing in a modest home.
His social media pages make no mention of the jackpot or his previous struggles to cope with life as a multi-millionaire.
Pictured: The brick wall around one of the windows on Roger's flat which has been charred by the fire
Roger started playing the lottery with hopes he would win and could use the money to pay for his daughter's wedding while working as a £250-a-week chef in London.
At first he enjoyed the trappings of his new found fortune, splashing out on a luxury £400k home in Crouch End, north London, a £350k beauty salon for his new hairdresser wife Mary and a £40k Range Rover.
He even bought the restaurant where he used to work and re-opened it as 'Roger's Seafood'.
Kind-hearted Roger often helped people in his local community, saying in 1999: 'If people ask me, I give it [money] to them.
'But for every one person I give to, there are hundreds who want more from me. And most of them don't need the money at all: they just want it for free.'
However, it was his wife's family that allegedly pushed his generosity to the limits - leading to the breakdown in his marriage just three years after his mega win.
Speaking at the time he said: 'I didn't just marry Mary - I married her mother, father, aunties, uncles, and cousins.
'Every day I had to make out a cheque for this one and that one. It never stopped and I'm not a bank. In the end I told them all to leave me alone.
'Mary was never after my money. She never used me or spent a lot but other people got in the way of our marriage.
'Her family and friends created lots of problems for us and she tried to change me to meet their demands so we were fighting all the time. In the end it was better for us to split up.'
Roger's then assistant Sarm Basram said he faced 'phenomenal' jealously from loved ones and friends.
Speaking in 1998, a year after his win, she said: 'At times I am protective of him, because people tend to crowd around him believing his luck to be infectious.
'I also deal with all the letters he receives which ask him for money. Initially he gave a lot of help to those he felt most needed it, including struggling single mothers, but people were ungrateful and just wanted more and more from him.'
She added: 'The phenomenal jealousy that some friends obviously feel can cause them to be really horrible to him. But it just makes him try harder than ever to give something back to the young and the elderly.
'He still does the Lottery twice a week, using his special system, and I am sure he will win again. He encourages me to join in but I don't think I would want to be a multimillionaire, having seen the amount of stress it can cause.'
Roger was so stressed he described life with his lottery millions a 'suffocating hell'.
He said: 'I regret it day and night. Last week I woke up sobbing and shouting, "God, I made a terrible mistake, please help me."
'It would have been better if I hadn't won the lottery. I had no idea my life would turn out like this, so packed full of stress.
'If I had the choice between winning the lottery and still being a chef on £250-a-week, I'd choose to stay a chef. I was so much happier.
'No one came to beg from me, my life was good, full of laughs, and easy going. I rented a flat, travelled on the bus or friends drove me, worked hard at a job I love, and then I relaxed. I was a million times more relaxed.
'It's too late to change now.
'To change I must leave England. Only that will save my life. If I stay in this country I will die.'