December £1m jackpot winner had Premium Bonds for just a year

A man from the north of England has scooped the top prize after only 18 months holding the winning bond

The champagne lifestyle could get a step nearer if you win a million! (AFP/Getty Images)

A man who only bought a Premium Bond last year has hit the million pound jackpot as one of the top prize winners in December's draw.

The Cumbria man bought his winning bond back in June 2014 and currently holds £27,590-worth of bonds.

The other winner is a woman from Bedfordshire who bought her inning Bond in October 2006. She has £38,600 invested in the government-backed prize draw.

More than £65m was paid out to more than 2.2 million prizewinners in December, with the bulk receiving £25, although there were also five prizes of what could be a life-changing £100,000, 11 prizes of £50,000, 21 of £25,000 and 51 of £10,000.

The odds of winning any prize in the monthly draw are currently 26,000 to 1, although the odds of winning a jackpot are much higher.

All prizes are paid tax-free although anyone who doesn’t end up a winner will only get their cash returned with no interest added.

Meanwhile there remain more than 1.1 million unclaimed Premium Bond prizes worth collectively more than £51m.

There is no time limit for claiming prizes so even if you won decades ago - the first draw was June 1957 – your money will be waiting for you.

There’s a free NS&I Premium Bonds prize checker app which lets you check if you’ve won a prize in the past six months.

But you can check back further in time by using the Premium Bonds prize checker at nsandi.com

You can also cut the chances of prizes end up unclaimed by registering to have any prizes paid directly into your bank accounts with you notified by email. You can do that at nsandi.com/register