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Honest Andy gives up £23MILLION!

Jo Rostron
21/ 9/2005

A HEYWOOD firefighter became an overnight millionaire through an internet poker game when his account was accidentally credited with 44 million dollars.

But honest Andy Dole, 33, put thoughts of retiring to take up a life of luxury out of his mind and contacted website operator Victor Chandler to report the error.

'Giving back' £23 million pounds would be easy, you might think - but Andy was unable to get in contact with anyone to tell them of their mistake.

So the resourceful dad-of-two from Bury New Road got in touch with the Sun newspaper and it was only after a brief report appeared in the national press that he was able to set matters straight.

So did it occur to him to keep quiet and join the ranks or Britain's super rich?

"Obviously you think about it," he said, "But I knew I couldn't touch it - at the end of the day it wasn't mine."

So despite having an extremely healthy account for a full two days he never found out if he could actually have spent the money.

"You could buy anything you wanted with £23 million pounds," he added. "Had it been mine I would have sorted out my family and friends before thinking about how else I could use it."

It means Heywood Fire Station won't be losing Red Watch member Andy, who has been with the service for the last 10 years, to a life of Riley.

Andy has scooped a couple of legitimate wins on the poker game Texas Hold 'em in the past and his account is now back to normal.

The website sent him £50 as a goodwill gesture.

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