Ref. 29500-26Swindon crisp-eaters are turning out to be some of the luckiest in the country.

Two people in a week have defied odds of 113,000/1 to win new cars after finding tickets in packets of Walkers Crisps.

Mark Smith, of Welcombe Avenue, Park North, is the latest Swindonian to discover he had won a Ford Focus Ghia when he opened a pack of the cheese and onion snack.

Days earlier 45-year-old maintenance engineer Glenn Dance, of Grange Park, picked up his new car from Ford's UK headquarters in Dagenham, after finding a lucky ticket in a bag of ready salted crisps bought at Asda in West Swindon.

Warehouse manager Mr Smith, 39, struck lucky on Saturday, but if it had not been for the fact that his three children Craig, 12, Liam, 11 and Melissa, five were visiting that weekend he would not have bought any crisps from Tesco in Ocotal Way.

Mr Smith, who currently drives a Kia 4x4 and lives with his partner Tracy, said: "We went shopping to get the children some crisps and were discussing which flavours to get in the end we plumped for a multipack of cheese and onion.

"In the evening we all had a bag, but it took me ages to open it.

"Tracy said 'all that effort is because you've probably won a car' and when I found the blue sachet my heart was racing.

"I was gobsmacked and didn't know what to say. I had to read it two or three times before I realised what I had won.

"If the children were not visiting we wouldn't have bought the crisps.

"I must confess I've been out to get a load more since then just in case I'm on a run of luck!"

The competition to win one of 140 £15,000 Ford Focus cars began in February. To date 40 have been won, but Swindon is the only town to have produced multiple winners.

There are also 10 Ford Ka street cars to be snapped up and thousands of free packets of crisps to be won.

Samantha Green, brand manager for Walkers Crisps, said: "We are absolutely thrilled that Swindon has bagged two lucky winners.

"This is the first time we have had more than one winner from the same area it's obviously a lucky town. Obviously Swindon has that Midas touch."

Walkers randomly inserted 17 million blue sachets into individual and multipacks of crisps. Six million packets are sold every day.

Liz Radford, checkout manager at Tesco in Ocotal Way, said: "Sales of Walkers Crisps are robust and we are delighted one of our customers has won a car."

Lucky winner Mr Dance declined to comment.

Giles Sheldrick