FRESH back from their holiday in sunny Scarborough, York's newest millionaires have still got their feet firmly on the ground.

Lottery winners Diane and Kevin Downing, from Acomb, revealed that to date they have spent a meagre £1,772 of the mammoth £4 million Lottery haul they pocketed back in April.

Their week in Scarborough set them back £1,225, with the rest of the money going on new specs for Diane at £450, four Next T-shirts worth £40, a new leather-bound Bible at £47, and the new Harry Potter hardback, costing £17.

"It's not that we don't like being rich. It's just we can't seem to get used to it yet," said Diane, 60.

In April, the Evening Press reported that the pair had no savings and were used to living off a pension worth only £125 a week before their windfall.

Back then, the couple, who have been married for 42 years, insisted they would not get carried away and "spend, spend, spend" their new found riches, or desert their White Rose roots - and they have been true to their word.

"The Lottery people insisted it was best to get away for a while. Perhaps they were thinking of the Maldives or the Seychelles, but we went to somewhere we knew we liked," Diane said of their Scarborough holiday.

They paid £175 a day for their seven-night stay and said they loved every minute.

Just the interest from the massive jackpot win alone has raked in more than £3,500 a week.

The overnight multi-millionaires have said they will help their two sons, Jeremy, 38, and Justin, 40, with £150,000 each to pay off mortgages.

A cool £15,000 will also buy bike fan Kevin, 62, a gleaming new Harley Davidson and upgrade their two-bed bungalow in west York to a luxury home, maybe on the North York Moors.

The Downings' riches may seem pretty good to most readers.

But it pales into insignificance when compared to the region's richest residents.

The Sunday Times Rich List 2005 required a minimum £50 million fortune, and reveals the family behind the York-based Shepherd Building group to be the real big winners.

Soaring profits have propelled the Shepherd family up to seventh in the list of Yorkshire's richest, with a combined wealth of £265 million.

Up from £180 million last year, this 50 per cent rise comes on the back of 2003-04 profits of £30.3 million from sales of £603.4 million.

Sir Ken Morrison, the supermarket boss who lives near Boroughbridge, comes second in the Yorkshire list with £1,100 million.

Updated: 10:16 Monday, May 16, 2005