A Northern Irish woman who won a £27m fortune on EuroMillions has been sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid community service for attacking a taxi driver in a Co Tyrone town.
Multi-millionaire Margaret Loughrey was found guilty in Strabane district court on Thursday of causing criminal damage to the driver’s spectacles as well as his satnav system during an alcohol-fuelled outburst in May.
The 56-year-old was ordered to pay £559 for the damage she caused to the taxi driver’s glasses. The judge also ordered her to pay the driver £200 compensation.
The then unemployed Loughrey won the EuroMillions in December 2013 scooping the £27m jackpot.
A Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service solicitor told Strabane magistrates court that Loughrey, who had no previous criminal convictions, also verbally abused police officers following her arrest after the incidents.
The solicitor said the police were alerted to the incidents near the junction of Bridge Street and Chestnut Park in Strabane on 14 May following a 999 call from the driver.
The court heard that the driver told police Loughrey was “going mad in his taxi and that she had broken his glasses and assaulted him”.
Defence barrister Stephen Chapman said: “It was the amount of alcohol she had taken. She had been drinking vodka and was highly intoxicated after consuming a large amount of alcohol.
“She is a woman with a number of advantages and she accepts that her behaviour on this night was totally unacceptable.
“She is somebody who has undergone a significant change in her life in recent years and she has gone about those changes in a positive manner that has benefited many people in many different ways.”
The deputy district judge said given Loughrey’s previously unblemished record he accepted it was an example of one-off offending.
“You have had more advantages than most people in the last number of years, but they have obviously brought with them some problems,” he told Loughrey.
“You have made major contributions to the local community but you will be treated as anyone else who comes before the court with a previously clear record,” he added, before imposing the 150-hour community service order.
