IN 2001, Charles Ingram was stripped of his £1million Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Prize after a coughing scandal emerged.
But who is he and what was the scandal? Here’s everything you need to know.
Charles Ingram cheated his way to £1 million on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Who is Charles Ingram?
Charles Ingram, born on August 6, 1963, is a novelist and former British Army Major from Derbyshire.
Ingram first came to the public’s attention in 2001 – following an appearance on the iconic quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.
Who is Diana Ingram?
Diana Ingram married Charles in 1989.
The couple met while she was training to be a teacher at Barry College in South Wales, and went on to have three children.
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She had already appeared on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? prior to her husband’s appearances, winning £32,000.
What was the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? coughing scandal?
In 2001, Major Charles Ingram landed a place on the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire stage.
During his stint on the show, Ingram answered 15 questions correctly and as a result scooped the £1million prize jackpot – but was found to have cheated in a sensational coughing scandal involving a member of the audience.
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Suspicions were immediately sparked – and the cheque was taken from him as he left the studio.
In 2022, host Chris Tarrant opened up about how the scam first began to unravel just moments after Ingram won the jackpot.
Writing in the book It’s Not A Proper Job, which has been quoted by the Daily Mail, he said: “I went back towards the Ingrams’ dressing room to congratulate them. But I was stopped in my tracks by Eve, a lovely girl in our research team who was sobbing.
“What’s wrong, Eve?’ I asked. ‘It’s been the most amazing night.’
‘No,’ she said, ‘the Major has just told me very forcibly to get out of his dressing room and eff off. I went to see them with a big bottle of champagne, but they were having this massive row.’
“Now, it doesn’t matter who you are, and how unhappy you may be as a couple, if you have just won £1 million, surely you would be in a celebratory mood?”
Following the row with his wife, the production team began trawling through the tapes and eventually discovered a pattern of coughing which came from the audience – where fellow contestant Tecwen Whittock was sitting.
Whittock had coughed loudly to indicate the right answer and blew his nose loudly when the major was about to give a wrong answer.
As the coughing scandal emerged, the police were called and as a result Ingram, his wife Diana and Whittcock went on trial at Southwark Crown Court in 2003.
What happened at the court case?
During the court proceedings, jurors heard evidence from Ingram claiming the video tape of the show was “unfairly manipulated”.
They also heard that there were 192 coughs recorded during the second night of the show.
32 of those were from the ten Fastest Finger First contestants – with 19 of these ‘’significant’’.
Whittock, a college lecturer from Cardiff, was waiting in the ‘fastest finger first’ group when the controversy erupted.
The court also heard the coughs were from Whittock.
However, it was accepted by the prosecution that he had two long standing respiratory conditions and suffered from persistent coughing.
Following the trial, all three were convicted of procuring the execution of valuable security by deception.
Major Charles and his wife Diana were both given an 18 month prison sentence suspended for two years, while Whittock received a 12 month sentence suspended for two years.
Where is Charles Ingram now?
After he was sentenced, the Army Board forced Ingram to resign as major after 17 years of service.
Despite this, he went on to remain a TV personality and made several appearances on competition reality shows.
After the trial the Ingrams’ were vilified and soon stepped out of the limelight with their three daughters.
Charles was last spotted selling jewellery in a Christmas market stall in Bath in 2019, he had declared himself as bankrupt for the fourth time just months before.
Diana also runs Bathwick Candle & Co, designing ‘eco-friendly, pure natural essential oil scented soy wax candles in bespoke pots’, to sell online for £20 and above.
According to his Facebook, Ingram has set up Abacus Computing Solutions and is also ‘director of operations’ in his wife’s two businesses.
Meanwhile Tecwen resigned from his lecturer’s job at Pontypridd College in Wales shortly after the court case and reportedly had to sell his Whitchurch home to pay fines and court costs.
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