| Charles Ingram | |
|---|---|
 Charles Ingram with his wife Diana |
|
| Born | August 6, 1963 |
| Occupation | Author, Novelist |
| Known for | Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? |
Charles Ingram (born 6 August 1963) is a former British Army major and novelist who made headlines in the United Kingdom after he was accused of cheating in the television show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 2001. He was convicted of deception, although he maintains that he did not cheat.
He is married to Diana Ingram and has since participated in other television game/reality shows, including The Weakest Link and Hell's Kitchen. In 2003 he received a conditional discharge for insurance fraud after being found guilty of one count of deception and a related count regarding a claim against a house contents insurance policy. His wife, Diana also appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, on April 9, 2001, winning £32,000.[1]
|
Contents
|
Education and career
Charles Ingram went to Oswestry School and obtained a BSc in Civil Engineering from Kingston Polytechnic, an MSc in Corporate Management from Cranfield University, Chartered membership of the Institute of Personnel and Development, membership of the Chartered Management Institute, membership of the Association for Project Management, membership of the Society of Authors, and membership of Mensa. In 1986, he trained for the Army at Sandhurst and was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Engineers. He was promoted to the rank of Major in 1995, and in 1999 he served in Bosnia for six months on NATO peacekeeping duties. He was forced to resign from the Army in 2003 and later embarked on a career as a novelist.[2]
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? affair
The ITV programme was produced by Celador at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. The show, hosted by Chris Tarrant, was recorded on 9 September 2001 and 10 September 2001. After the last question, Chris Tarrant said, "Charles, give me the cheque for £500,000. You no longer have it,... you've just won £1,000,000!" but the payout was suspended when he was accused of cheating by having an accomplice, Tecwen Whittock, and Ingram's wife, Diana, cough when he read out the correct answers. Following a trial at Southwark Crown Court lasting four weeks including jury deliberation for three-and-a-half days, which ended soon after a jury member was evicted for discussing the case in public, Charles & Diana Ingram and Whittock were convicted by a majority verdict of "procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception" on 7 April 2003. In fact before this, Diana was a contestant and won £32,000. (Her brother Adrian had previously won the same amount.)[3]
On the day of the verdict, the Ingrams were each given 18-month prison sentences suspended for two years, each fined £15,000, and each ordered to pay £10,000 towards prosecution costs. Within two months of the verdict and sentence, the trial judge ordered the Ingrams to pay additional defence costs orders, Charles £40,000 and Diana £25,000. Altogether with legal fees, the Ingrams had to pay £115,000.
The Army Board invited Major Ingram to resign his commission. He retired on 19 August 2003 with his state-earned pension of 17 years.
On 19 May 2004 the Court of Appeal denied Ingram leave to appeal against his conviction and upheld his sentence but agreed to quash his wife's fine and prosecution costs.[4] On 5 October 2004 the House of Lords denied Ingram his leave to appeal against his fine and prosecution costs, and he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. On 20 October 2004 the original trial judge reduced Ingram's defence costs order to £25,000 and Diana Ingram's defence costs order to £5,000.[5] On 21 May 2005 Ingram appealed against his conviction to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The CCRC completed its review in Autumn 2006 concluding that "there was insufficient prospect of overturning the conviction".
An essay [2] written by James Plaskett in favour of the innocence of Charles Ingram, his wife, and Whittock led to the journalist Bob Woffinden, who had a long time interest in miscarriages of justice, publishing a two-page article in the 9 October 2004 edition of the British newspaper the Daily Mail, entitled "Is The Coughing Major Innocent?"
Plaskett's essay also prompted a reconsideration of the case in The Guardian Comment Is Free blog on 17 July 2006 from an initially sceptical Jon Ronson.[3]
Charles and Diana Ingram declared bankruptcy in October 2004.[6] Charles Ingram is now a novelist and has written two novels, The Network, published on 27 April 2006 and Deep Siege, published on 8 October 2007.
Evidence
Tapes
A transcript of the video tape played in court can be found here. In court Ingram claimed the video tape was "unrepresentative of what I heard"; indeed, he continues to assert that it was "unfairly manipulated". He claims that he neither listened for, encouraged, nor noticed any coughing. The prosecution alleged that, of the 192 coughs recorded during his second-night performance, 32 were recorded from the ten Fastest Finger First contestants, and that 19 of the 32 coughs clearly heard on the video tape recorded louder than both Ingram's and Tarrant's voices, were "significant". Tarrant also denied hearing any coughing, claiming he was too busy to notice.[7]
Larry Whitehurst
Whitehurst, another contestant who has appeared on the show as a Fastest Finger First contestant on four occasions, was adamant that he had known the answers to Ingram's questions. He told the court that he had been able to detect a pattern of coughing, and that he was entirely convinced coughing had helped Ingram.[8]
Tecwen Whittock
Whittock claims to have suffered from a persistent cough for his entire life[9] and insisted that he had a genuine cough caused by a combination of hay fever and a dust allergy and that it was only "coincidence" that his throat problem coincided with the right answer.[10] However, during the trial the jury heard evidence that once Whittock himself was picked to sit in the hot seat, his throat problems disappeared.[10] Whittock later testified that he drank several glasses of water before he went in front of the cameras.[11] Whittock also insisted that he had not known the answers to three of the questions he allegedly helped with. However, the police found the answer to question number 12 regarding the artist who painted The Ambassadors in a hand-written general knowledge book at his home.[10]
Davis, the floor manager, said that as soon as the coughing came to his notice during the recording he decided to find out who was responsible. "The loudest coughing was coming from Tecwen in seat number three", he claimed. "He was talking to the person to his left when I was observing him, and then he turned towards the set and the hot seat to cough." Whittock said in court that "you do not cough into someone's face".[12]
During the trial, Whittock portrayed himself as a "serial quiz show loser" because he had been eliminated in round one of "15 to 1" and had only won an atlas on his appearance on "Sale of the century".[13] However, Whittock twice won the Wales heat of Brain of Britain (on BBC Radio 4) and in the 1994 semi-final was only narrowly beaten into runner-up spot. In the 1997 semi-final, he could only manage third place and the heat was easily won by quiz legend Daphne Fowler.
After the show
A researcher (the Ingrams' chaperone), Ms Winstanley, told the court that Ingram's initial excitement at winning the £1 million top prize rapidly disappeared after returning to his dressing room. In the ten minutes it took to get a glass of wine for his wife and a pint of bitter and a cigar for himself, she claimed the atmosphere in the couple's dressing room had changed. She first heard a window being slammed shut and then raised voices from inside. "They were raised in argument," she explained. "I saw Mrs Ingram was pale, shaking. I then asked Mr Ingram if he would like me to light his cigar but he told me to leave." Winstanley told how she tried to lighten the atmosphere in his dressing room. "He raised his arms up in the air and said 'Don't start, I have got things to do. You don't understand'", she claimed. "It was then that he told me to 'Fuck off.' Mr Ingram then moved towards me, which indicated to me that he wanted me to leave the room. So I did," she claimed.
Celador employees including Mr Tarrant spoke of their shock when told what Ingram said to Winstanley. The court heard from other Celador employees about how Ingram appeared very tense and unhappy minutes after winning the top prize. This was at odds with testimony from other witnesses at the recording.
Mr and Mrs Ingram denied Miss Winstanley's recollection of events and telling her to "Fuck off." Mr Ingram said he could not remember opening or closing a window, and thought it more likely he opened one to smoke a cigar, but said that Winstanley may have overheard both him and his wife talking excitedly on two mobile telephones simultaneously, calls that were proved to have been made. He said that he was concerned about attending work the following morning, something he had to do, and remembered debating with his wife about overnighting in a local five-star hotel that had been offered – something she was keen to do but he was not, not until he remembered he was working up in London the following day. Ingram claimed it was Winstanley who said that she must leave, as the show was still recording, and she apologised for leaving them alone after his big win but she had other responsibilities to attend to.
Mr Tarrant, who drank champagne with the Ingrams in their dressing room, said he was convinced the major was genuine when he signed the £1 million cheque. "If I thought there was anything wrong, I certainly would not have signed it." When asked whether the atmosphere in the dressing room was tense after the show, Tarrant replied: "No, not at all. They seemed as normal as people who have just won a million pounds would be in the situation." However, he said that on his way to the dressing room, "I had been told there had been quite an unpleasant exchange."[14] Researcher Eve Winstanley testified in court that Mr. Ingram seemed very "unhappy" for someone who had just won over a million pounds.[15]
Celador employees produced and reviewed various compilation tapes, before and after contacting the police. Celador and their editing company, Editworks, retained all the tapes during the case and reproduced all tapes for court.[citation needed]
In court, Smith confirmed that his company had previously produced a television programme involving witnesses about the case, for broadcast on ITV after the trial. This was subsequently broadcast on ITV a month after the trial as Tonight With Trevor McDonald – Major Fraud, which was credited with over 17 million viewers. Two weeks later, the same channel broadcast another programme entitled The Final Answer, which was credited with over 5 million viewers.
Verdict
The trial judge summed up the case by stating to the jury that the tapes and Mr Whitehurst were the two pieces of "direct evidence" offered by the prosecution before adding that, "coincidences happen".
The foreman at first told the judge that they thought Charles and Tecwen to be guilty but Diana not. He was informed that since all three were co-defendants, this was not an acceptable conclusion. He then returned to the jury room and emerged some twenty minutes later saying that they now thought her guilty as well.
Immediately after the jury's verdict the judge sentenced the three defendants.
References
- ^ TV cheat gets two-year discharge
- ^ Millionaire cheat sacked by Army
- ^ "Major Charles Ingram has been found guilty of cheating his way to the top prize on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.". BBC News. 2003-04-07. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2823407.stm. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
- ^ "TV quiz cheat loses his appeal". BBC News. 2004-05-19. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/3728929.stm. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
- ^ "Quiz cheat has defence costs cut". BBC News. 2004-10-21. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/3762688.stm. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
- ^ "Game show cheat Ingram bankrupt". BBC News. 2004-12-08. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/4080191.stm. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
- ^ "Quizmaster 'amazed' to hear £1m winner could have cheated". 2003-03-13. http://news.scotsman.com/quizshowscam/Quizmaster-amazed-to-hear-1m.2410121.jp. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
- ^ Contestant 'spotted Millionaire coughs', BBC News, 11 March 2003
- ^ "So I phoned a friend - part two". 2003-04-19. http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,938649,00.html. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
- ^ a b c "Pager plot too risky for TV quiz'". 2003-03-07. http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=788&id=278322003. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
- ^ "Cheating 'silly' says Millionaire accused". BBC News. 2003-03-26. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2888791.stm. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
- ^ http://www.portia.org/chapter14/major.html
- ^ "Lecturer a serial quiz show failure, court is told". 2003-03-26. http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=788&id=360802003. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Millionaire winner 'unhappy'". BBC News. 2003-03-10. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2836937.stm. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Charles Ingram |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
