UNITED KINGDOM: A newly divorced British millionaire plans to hand over his mansion, sports car and boat to the winner of a "beat the credit-crunch blues" competition

Record ID: 785415

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: A newly divorced British millionaire plans to hand over his mansion, sports car and boat to the winner of a "beat the credit-crunch blues" competition
  • Date: 30th June 2009
  • Summary: SEVENOAKS, UNITED KINGDOM (JUNE 25, 2009) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANDREW PAUL, SAYING: "You know what, I've been an equities trader for 15 years, it's not such a great life because you're up at 4.30, quarter to five in the morning, because you're trading in Japan and south east Asia, I get home at 7.30 so by the time you've eaten it's time for bed again then you get up. So I want to slow down my pace of life, I want to spend more time with my little boy, and just see where it takes me." PAUL LEAVING HIS HOUSE AND GETTING INTO HIS AUDI R-8 CLOSE OF AUDI WHEEL PAUL STARTS THE CAR'S ENGINE PAUL DRIVES AWAYs
  • Embargoed: 15th July 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA1832Z66TEKOK4G0R2MDTCU4LP
  • Story Text: A newly divorced British millionaire plans to hand over his mansion, sports car and boat to the winner of a "beat the credit-crunch blues" competition.
    London banker Andrew Paul is charging entrants just 20 pounds ($32.81) for the chance to win his 1.1 million pound fully furnished house, a racy Aston Martin, a motor boat and an additional 85,000 pounds to cover legal fees. Or the winner can opt for 1 million pounds in cash.
    Thirty-eight-year-old Paul, who has been a trader in the financial markets for 15 years, is seeking to make a new start in life. After breaking up with his wife, he said he wants to give someone else the chance to live a dream life.
    The competition launched on his website www.winanewlife.com challenges entrants to place a computer-animated golf ball on a photograph of Paul swinging his club.
    The person to place the ball in -- or nearest to -- the correct position before the competition closes on August 19, will walk away with first prize.
    Speaking to Reuters at his mansion in Kent on Thursday (June 25), Paul explained why he had launched the competition.
    "It's mainly for personal reasons, originally nine months ago when I divorced, I basically thought of a way where I could settle everything more amicably." Paul said, "I come up with a business manager, a team of lawyers, PR girl and come up with this idea, which originally was to start up winanewlife.com which would enable somebody to win basically my goods, which is obviously the house fully furnished, was going to be my cars and my boat. As always things change and the team of lawyers basically found that giving away second hand goods, i.e. the boat and the car, there was legality issues in doing that, so that's why we decided on a brand new Aston Martin and the Sealine (Boat)."
    Having now resigned from his hectic trading job, Paul said that with the changes in his personal life, his motivations had now changed.
    "I want to slow down my pace of life, I want to spend more time with my little boy, and just see where it takes me." he said.
    The competition conditions state that a maximum of 200,000 tickets will be sold. That could raise a potential 4 million pounds.
    If less than 150,000 tickets are sold, Paul reserves the right to retain the house, car and boat, and offer the person deemed the winner a cash prize of between 10,000 and 1 million pounds instead.
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