A man from the USA had a happy new year by winning more than GBP 1.6 million on the lottery.

Carmelo Canepa was filling up his car’s tank at the Circle K convenience store and gas station on Louisburg Road, in the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, when he spotted a bunch of Platinum scratch-off tickets.

The man who lives in the town of Fuquay-Varina, in Wake County, then decided to try his luck out and bought one of them for the price of USD 20 (GBP 16.58).

But he never even anticipated that it would win him USD 2 million (GBP 1.6 million), a prize he claimed at North Carolina Education Lottery’s headquarters on Tuesday, 3rd January.

He was then given the possibility to choose between receiving the prize as an annuity of USD 100,000 (GBP 83,000) for 20 years or taking a lump sum of USD 1.2 million (GBP 996,000).

After choosing the lump sum, Canepa headed home with USD 855,006 (GBP 709,483) following state and federal tax withholdings.

The North Carolina Education Lottery said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: “Platinum debuted in August with four USD 2 million prizes and eight USD 100,000 prizes.

“Two USD 2 million prizes and four USD 100,000 prizes remain to be claimed.”