A GROUP of electricians are celebrating today after scooping almost £300,000 on the EuroMillions.

The 30-strong syndicate, who all work at the SSI steel plant in Redcar, only realised they had hit the jackpot four days after the draw on September 20.

Luckily syndicate leader Edward Phoenix had left the winning ticket at work over the weekend and despite taking it home on the Monday, he still didn’t check the numbers until the Tuesday morning.

The 57-year-old had the joy of letting everyone know they were set to share £288,743.10 after putting on their regular 15 lines a week.

He said: “We didn’t even realise we had won until four days after the draw. On Monday, I moved the ticket from my desk to the tank bag on my motorbike so I wouldn’t forget it again. When I arrived home Monday evening, it slipped my mind again and the ticket spent the night in my garage.

“When I got into work on Tuesday morning, I opened the tank bank and spotted the ticket. I couldn’t believe I’d left it so long. I grabbed it and went straight into the office to check the results on my phone app. The signal at work isn’t great so I asked a few of the syndicate members to try their phones.

“A crowd started forming as we waited for the results to load. Our third line had won, we couldn’t believe it. The phone got passed around as everyone checked and re-checked it.”

Some of the group have already decided what they plan to spend their money on.

Mr Phoenix’s wife has already updated the hotel and airline seats for their planned holiday to Spain next month.

One winner, Tony Campbell is planning on taking his wife and step-daughter New Zealand to meet his parents for the very first time.

He said: “We have been together for ten years and my wife has met my parents, so we thought that would be a good use of the money.”

Another winner, Mark Fox is planning something a little closer to home. He said: “It’s my wife’s 60th birthday next year so I think I’ll use some of the money to take her on holiday to Scotland.”

The winning numbers were 5, 11, 35, 38, 45 and they got one of the Lucky Stars which was 2.