LOTTERY winner Adrian Bayford has already been bombarded with letters requesting a slice of his �148million jackpot – despite being away on holiday.

The begging letters, some simply addressed “Lottery winners, Haverhill”, have been pouring into the music shop he co-owns with his best friend all week.

Richard Hudspith, who has known Mr Bayford for more than 20 years and runs the Suffolk Music Centre in Queen Street alongside him, said the store’s usual post had been swollen with mail from as far away as Africa.

He added: “We have had a lot of letters. We’ve had the usual bills, but put it this way we’ve had a lot more letters than usual.”

Yesterday morning shop staff were sifting through a box of post, sorting requests for cash from genuine messages of support and bills.

Some envelopes, bearing airmail stamps, were scrawled with “This is not a begging letter” and return addresses.

Staff said letters to Mr Bayford, 40, who is thought to be holidaying in a Scottish caravan park with his wife Gillian and children, had gone up by “several hundred percent”.

Mr Hudspith, who described the week since Mr Bayford’s big win as “unusual”, explained how his friend and colleague had broken the news of his lottery luck.

“I got a text message at about 6.45 on Sunday morning saying ‘I’m not coming

In, something has come up.’ At about 2.30pm he phoned up and said ‘Right, in half an hour close the shop, we’re coming to pick you up and take you home’.

“I thought, Oh God, bad news.”

The 38-year-old, who lives in Haverhill said he did not believe it when his friends sat him down and told him they had won big on the EuroMillions.

He added: “I just couldn’t comprehend the amount, �10million you could imagine, but �148million? I would be happy with �148.”

Mr Hudspith also denied reports that he had turned down an offer to be turned into a millionaire.

“I don’t know who said I had turned down a million pounds. I think Adrian is thinking about his immediate family, just now. I haven’t been offered anything and I wouldn’t presume to get something, I think that’s wrong.

“But if I turned down �1million, I’m either the world’s biggest saint or the world’s stupidest man.”

Mr Bayford is expected to return to work “in some form” after his holiday.

Mr Hudspith said the couple were “working people before the win and they will be working people again.”

“There is only so many times you can travel round the world”, he added.