A MAN from Millom has managed to bag himself a Mercedes after first winning a Mini on the McDonald’s Monopoly.

Tom Hillier almost missed out on his dream car, however, after collecting the prize-winning combination from outlets in Cumbria.

Mr Hillier, 26, says he nearly threw out the winning combination when he was cleaning his car last March.

He said: “I noticed I had all three [corresponding] stickers when I was clearing my car out.

“I was about to throw it out until I realised they all aligned.

“So I drove back to the McDonald’s in Whitehaven. A manager there told me to enter in the details online, which I did later on, and it all went from there.”

After winning, Mr Hillier says he began negotiating with Mini to sell the car back to the manufacturer. By June, using the money from the deal, he had put down the £5,000 down-payment for the Mercedes, which he says he is paying off in instalments.

He says he sold the prize model back to Mini for £14,000 after negotiating a price with a dealership in York and subsequently bought the Mercedes motor for £12,000.

Mr Hillier also revealed he spent some of the remaining money from the Mini resale on a trip to Old Trafford to watch the Manchester derby - rounded off by a visit to Rio Ferdinand’s restaurant, Rosso’s.

“The whole thing was surreal - I didn’t believe it until the money was in my account,” he said.

“I didn’t think this was really happening at first. It’s the kind of thing you hear about but you never did think it would happen to you.”