MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands' veteran: “richest sergeant in Afghanistan”

Caked in mud as he digs trenches and lays explosives intended to thwart the Taleban, he may not look like a man who has a lot of money.

But Sergeant Neil Coates, a Briton and Falklands veteran currently serving with the Canadian army in Afghanistan, has just won half a million dollars on the Ontario lottery, reports the UK press.

"I'm the richest sergeant in Afghanistan," he told The Times. Instead of celebrating his win, worth about £300,000, with a bottle of bubbly, a stretch limo and a luxury Caribbean holiday, Sergeant Coates, who emigrated from Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham, 16 years ago, finds himself marooned in Afghanistan and under fire. He has not showered for a week.

Fellow soldiers in Two Combat Engineers of the Canadian Army have made it their mission to ensure that Sergeant Coates, 44, survives his six-month tour of duty unscathed, if only so that he can buy them a round of drinks when they return home to Canada. One has drawn dollar signs on his helmet.

Sergeant Coates left the Royal Engineers and England in 1990 for a new life in Canada, settling in Petawawa, Ontario. He served with the British Army in the Falkland Islands in 1982 and after emigrating he joined Canada's equivalent of the Territorial Army before returning to a full-time post in the military.

When he was posted to Afghanistan his wife, Cheryl, took a part-time job in the officers' mess and paid two Canadian dollars a week into a lottery syndicate with seven other wives. When their numbers came up they discovered that they would share a total of 5 million Canadian dollars.

When Sergeant Coates, who earns about C$40,000 a year, was told that he should telephone home he feared bad news. "I was worried. The wife told me to sit down, then she said, ?We have won the lottery and I've already booked the limo', I couldn't believe it," he said.

Until the lottery win, Sergeant Coates and his fellow Engineers have had little to cheer, living out in the open and surviving on rations. One of their colleagues was killed during a clash with the Taleban. "We lost a good friend, so the lottery win is a morale lift."

He has drawn on his experience in the Falkland Islands to help him to endure the tough conditions in Afghanistan.

"The closest I'd relate this to, of all my operations, is the Falklands, the way the ops go, the collateral damage and the fact that you're always on the go."

Now Sergeant Coates is dreaming of a trip home to England and watching Newcastle United. He has other plans too. "I'm just looking forward to being debt-free, buying a new car and looking for a new home," he said.

There will be no career change, though. "I don't think I'll leave the Army," he said. "I've been doing this so long".