A lottery winner burned through his fortune after splurging on a pub, nightclub and luxury yacht.

Sherif Girgis managed to spend most of his AU $30 million AUS (£17million) prize money after making several ill-judged investments.

Girgis, who won the jackpot in 2007 when he was 23, lost $1 million (£555,000) on a pub (now the The Grand Central) he bought in Perth, Australia .

His purchase of a $2.6 (£1.5m) nightclub called Crush also wasn’t profitable and his bad luck continued when a 80ft luxury catamaran he bought for $896,000 (£500,000) failed to make any money.

Girgis, who apparently had $5m (£2.8m) left in 2012, blamed his business advisor and City of Joondalup deputy mayor Russell Poliwka for his misfortune.

But a court ruled last week Mr Poliwka only had to pay him back $2m (£1.1 m) instead of the full amount he had requested, according to The West Australian.

Justice John Vaughan said: ‘Mr Poliwka operated as a sounding board for Mr Girgis and was involved in decision making for Mr Girgis.

‘(He) looked to Mr Poliwka for advice and deferred to and acted on Mr Poliwka’s representations and advice.

‘Reasonable reliance on Mr Poliwka’s misleading or deceptive representation, and on Mr Poliwka’s negligent advice, has been established.’

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