Lee King's Graduation Day in 2007 L-R Deborah Brett, Lee King and Eddie Maher

“FAST” Eddie Maher’s family fortunes took an upward turn last September when his son Lee won $100,000 dollars in the Missouri lottery, it emerged today.

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It was a welcome piece of good news for a family whose financial struggles were so bad that Maher had to declare himself bankrupt in November 2010.

Ironically, the 56-year-old has been wanted by Suffolk police ever since he, and the van he was in, disappeared from outside of Lloyds Bank in Hamilton Road, Felixstowe, on January 22, 1993. Inside the Securicor armoured vehicle was £1million.

However, on the day Maher’s 22-year-old son Lee – who now lives with his wife Jessica in Nixa, Missouri – broke up with his pregnant girlfriend Hannah Evans, he bought a winning scratch card.

Miss Evans, 22, of Marthasville, Missouri, said: “Lee won the lottery. He won $100,000 dollars in Missouri in September. He won it on the night I kicked him out of the house.

“My mum took him to the office to collect the money and he bought my mum’s car for $4,000 and gave it to me.

“He bought himself a big expensive truck and then wrecked it when colliding with someone’s garage a couple of weeks later.”

Miss Evans said she had never known Maher and his common law wife Deborah Brett – who was also known as Sarah King – to have money.

She said: “The whole time I have known them they have been broke. Lee told his mum once that he was going to get a rather large pay cheque and his mum asked if they could borrow $1,200, because they were going to have to declare bankruptcy otherwise.”

Federal court records in Springfield, Missouri, reveal Maher filed for bankruptcy in November 2010.

His finances were overwhelmed by credit card and instalment loan debt. Maher reported he had $34,350 in bills and $3,655 in assets.

Maher’s job with Suddenlink Cable paid him an average wage of $1,896.34 a month.

The picture of Maher’s life painted by the bankruptcy records is hardly lavish. It depicts a steady worker who rented a musical instrument for his other son Mark, who was 13 at the time.

Maher also provided his family with health insurance, including vision and dental care.

Among the things he owed money for were two hospital bills, a school course, credit cards, and a doctor’s bill.

Maher rented an apartment and drove a 1997 Mercury Mountaineer sport utility vehicle with more than 250,000 miles on the clock.

He had modest savings in a $401k retirement fund.

Maher paid $55 a month to cover $3,148.53 in unpaid taxes from 2008. He paid for all this with a $12.43
-an-hour job as a broadband technician.

Maher often got overtime, according to income statements.

A judge discharged Maher’s debts in May last year.

Maher is currently being held in Greene County jail on a charge of illegally possessing firearms.

He was detained by the US authorities last Wednesday at the family home in Ozark, Missouri on immigration matters.