Man who won Ksh18 billion jackpot evicts disabled best friend over Ksh30,000 rent

 Lottery Winners Adrian and Gillian Bayford Photo: Courtesy

Adrian Bayford, who won the lottery in 2012, has evicted Kym Mills from her home

When their shops stood side-by-side they were the best of friends.

They scrimped and saved to go on ­holidays and offered each other help and advice if times were tough.

Back then, Ksh30,000 here and there was the difference between sinking and swimming for the likes of Kym Mills and her fellow traders Adrian and Gillian Bayford.

Until 2012, that is – when the Bayfords scooped Ksh18 billion on the Euromillions .

 Kym Mills with her daughter Keera Mills at The Farmhouse Photo: Courtesy

Life changed forever, the Bayfords went on to become landlords for Kym and her daughter but the friendship has turned toxic in a row over a monthly rent rise... of Ksh30,000.

Now disabled Kym has been evicted from a house owned by 45-year-old Adrian , who split from Gillian, 43, in 2013.

Yet it would take barely 30 minutes for ksh18 billion to generate interest of Ksh30,000

In an interview today Kym also claims they fell out big time after she helped sell items from his 90-acre estate.

She said: “I’m just hurt – they were my best friends. And at the end of the day they’ve got it all and I’ve lost everything. I wish none of this had ever happened.

“Life was so much simpler before. This money split my friends up and ruined the relationship we had. I’ve got stuck in the middle of it and it’s not fair.”

Kym, 54, met the Bayfords in 2009 as her clothing shop was next door to the second-hand record store Adrian, 46, ran in Haverhill, near Cambridge.

When times were tough Kym says she offered a friendly ear to Adrian and Gillian, 44.

She said: “We used to go for coffees and I helped Gillian out with her baby.

"I used to confide in her and she did the same with me. We were just friends. It was lovely.”

Kym claimed she also sold stuff in her shop for Gillian, adding: “I’m a soft touch – I think if someone needs a helping hand I wouldn’t think twice about it.”

As Kym’s business grew she moved out to find bigger premises, but her fortunes later changed and she ended up closing.

She was still in touch with the Bayfords when their lives changed forever in 2012.

Gillian said at the time the money was “something to share with people that need help, people that have helped us and supported us”.

And she was good to her word – offering Kym a Ksh62,000-a-month home in an outbuilding on their estate.

A cleaning job was thrown in, which helped Kym as she is limited to 16 hours’ work a week due to a painful spine condition and epilepsy .

Daughter Keera, 23, who drives her mum around in a mobility car, also moved in.

Keera said: “It was great – Gillian really helped by giving us a place.

"We were struggling and they offered us a chance to start again. It seemed like a real lifeline.”

But just 15 months after the Lotto win Adrian and Gillian’s marriage fell apart.

She moved to Scotland to be with an Audi salesman who had sold her a fleet of cars, while Adrian agreed to continue employing Kym and honour the tenancy agreement.

Adrian found a new love in Samantha Burbidge, a stable girl 16 years his junior.

Keera said: “Mum even started working in the farm shop that Adrian and his new partner Sam set up.

"She had a little golf buggy Adrian lent her to get around in. She and Sam would spend time together and go for lunches.

"They were all incredibly close. We used to go round for barbecues.

"My uncle moved into another house on site and we even spent Christmas with Adrian and his family. We had a great time. It was like an extended family.”

Kym said: “Adrian has been here when I collapsed and been taken off by ambulance. His fiancee visited in hospital. We were so close.”

But things turned sour this year. Adrian and Sam, 30, closed the farm shop on their Cambridgeshire estate and moved stock to a Ksh185 million equestrian arena in Norfolk he bought for her.

Other items were to be sold by Kym on their behalf.

Keera said: “There were some buckets for horse feed and somebody asked if they could buy them.

"She told them she didn’t know how much Sam wanted, but if they took them they could sort the money out later.

"Sam started accusing mum of giving stuff away. She tried to explain what had happened but she got hostile towards us.”

Kym says Adrian eventually asked for the cleaner’s set of keys to his £6million home back – and the keys to the golf buggy.

In June, a letter told Kym and Keera the rent would rise from Ksh62,000 to Ksh93,000 a month.

Kym was earning Ksh1000 an hour as Adrian’s cleaner and could not afford the new rate.

Keera said: “He knows Mum can’t afford Ksh62,000 a month – he’s the one paying her.

"I work in a pharmacy down the road and we just can’t afford that much.

 “If it had been a gradual increase we might have been able to prepare for it, but all of a sudden he wanted 50 per cent more.

“We tried to challenge it, but next thing we knew he sent us an eviction notice.”