THE roll of a dice saw an East Lancashire mayor lose £12,000 out of his own pocket.

Hyndburn's outgoing mayor, Coun Tony Dobson, stumped up the cash to buy a new Mini One car after Darwen woman, Dinah Bradley, won a dice game at the Mayor's Ball.

She beat odds of 1,296-1 to roll four sixes and scoop the prize of a brand new car.

Businessman Coun Dobson set up a competition at the event where guests had to pay £5 for the chance to throw six sixes to win a new Mini One car.

But he decided to cut the odds by reducing the number of dice to four.

After a series of near misses Mrs Bradley hit the jackpot to win the £12,000 car, which will be paid for from the mayor's own pocket.

Coun Dobson said: "I wanted to set up a game where people had a reasonable chance of winning and i was fully prepared to lose.

"At the end of the day I am in a position where I can afford it."

His said his wife Trish "fully supported" his decision.

He added: "The ball is the prime fundraising event of the mayoral year and I wanted to make it really exciting with a big prize, and so came up with the idea of donating a Mini One from my own personal funds.

"Normally six dice are used, but I wanted to give people a fair chance to win the car, and so we used four dice instead.

"The whole thing had a real buzz about it as many people were getting near to winning, but none more so than Mrs Bradley who rolled the magic four sixes and couldn't believe her luck that she would soon be the owner of a brand new Mini One."

The odds on winning with four dice is 1,296-1 compared to 46,656-1 for six.

Leader of the council Coun Peter Britcliffe said: "Tony has given his all during his Mayoral year, and has always gone that extra mile with his fundraising events.

"This one is no exception and it's typical of Tony's generosity that he's donated such a fabulous prize from his own pocket.

The event raised more than £3,000 for mayoral charities.