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Michael Larson was 34 years old and unemployed in Lebanon, Ohio.
He drove a Mr. Softee ice cream truck part-time in the summer, but after losing his full-time job as an air conditioner repairman, he was getting by on his unemployment benefits and his girlfriend Teresa's paychecks. Michael wasn't lazy because he would go to great lengths to obtain money. He just did not enjoy working the traditional 9-5. Michael was born to grift. As a kid, he would sneak candy bars into school to sell to his classmates for a profit.
As an adult, he took advantage of a local bank's promotion that was offering $500 to every new customer that opened a checking account. Michael opened numerous accounts under fake names until the promotion ended, and he collected $500 for each one of them. Michael Larson even created a fake business using a family member's name for the purpose of hiring himself as an employee and then laying himself off so that he could collect unemployment, and nobody ever found out.
Michael Larson was always on the lookout for his next easy payday, and he thought he'd finally found it when the television game show Press Your Luck debuted in September 1983. The show instantly became the biggest, brightest, loudest, and most lucrative game show on TV, and Michael never missed an episode. In fact, he had seen every episode over a dozen times. In one of the rooms of his house, Michael had constructed an entire wall of televisions by stacking them on top of one another.
He would watch them all simultaneously, with each one tuned to a different game show or infomercial. The televisions generated so much heat that the paint began to peel off the walls. Teresa would apologize to visitors for the mess and avoid prolonging the conversation by telling them that Michael was just crazy. But Michael Larson wasn't crazy. Michael Larson was a man on a mission. The concept of Press Your Luck was simple.
In the first round, three contestants would answer some painless multiple choice trivia questions to earn spins on the game's board. The board consisted of 18 squares that contained either cash and prizes, free spins, or a cartoon monster called a Whammy that would strut onto the screen and bankrupt any unlucky player that it encountered.
The spins collected by the contestants in the first round were then used in the second round, when a light would bounce around the board from square to square, usually accompanied with words of encouragement like "Big bucks!" and "No whammies!" The player would yell "Stop!" and smash a big red button, and the light would freeze on whichever square was illuminated at the time. Whatever prize the selected box contained was added to the contestants' winnings, whether it be $1,000, a trip to Bali, or a brand new air conditioner.
Although the lights appeared to move around the board randomly, that wasn't the case. The designers of the game had rigged the board so that a whammy would be chosen on every sixth or seventh spin. The lights and prizes moved in five different predetermined patterns, but nobody would ever figure that out. Nobody has that much time on their hands, right? Using a VCR to study the broadcast frame by frame, Michael Larson had discovered that the Press Your Luck game board was not random at all.
He discovered that the board actually moved in five distinct patterns. And he discovered that there were two spots on the board where the dreaded Whammy Monster never appeared at all. With those discoveries, Michael Larson knew that all he needed to do was learn the timing of the board and the button, and he could rob the game show blind. Over the course of six months, Michael stood in front of his television with the VCR remote in hand, attempting to pause the tape in all the right spots. Michael practiced until he could accurately predict every move.
and then one day jumped into his car, drove to the bank, and withdrew every last dollar from his savings account and bought a plane ticket. Michael Larson was going to Hollywood. One morning in May 1984, Michael Larson walked into the production studio where Press Your Luck was filmed. He told the show's contestant coordinator Bob Edwards that he was an out-of-work ice cream man from Ohio, and he was there to audition to be a contestant on the show.
Bob Edwards admitted later that he immediately felt that something was off with Michael Larson. Something about the guy just rubbed him the wrong way. Bob told executive producer Bill Carruthers that he did not think Michael should be chosen to play. Bill disagreed, telling Edwards that Michael was a great sob story. A down-on-his-luck ice cream man trying to make it rich. That's good TV. The audience will love it. Michael Larson was scheduled to appear on Press Your Luck on May 19th, 1984.
On the Saturday morning of the taping, Michael Larson stopped at a thrift store on his way to the studio. For 65 cents, he purchased a light blue dress shirt to wear under his suit jacket. He wanted to make sure he looked presentable for his big moment on TV. Michael arrived at the studio's green room and made small talk with the two contestants he would be playing against, a dental assistant named Janie Leitris and a Baptist minister named Ed Long, the returning champion who had won over $11,000 in a previous taping.
The three contestants were called to the stage to take their places. Michael was positioned in the middle with Ed on his right and Janie on his left. The director began the countdown and the cameras started rolling. Press Your Luck began in typical game show fashion. Host Peter Tamarkin introduced the contestants to the audience by way of awkward small talk before launching into the first round. A round in which Michael Larson did not fare so well.
He only earned three spins during the trivia portion, the lowest total out of all three contestants, and he landed on a whammy during his first spin of the board. The response of the board's button proved to be a little faster than the pause button on his VCR remote, so Michael made some timing adjustments and tried again. He landed on cash prizes with his remaining two spins and ended the first round in last place with $2,500.
In the second round, Michael answered enough trivia questions correctly to earn 7 spins, which would prove to be more than enough. After his first 3 spins of the board, he had won almost $7,000 and collected multiple free additional spins along the way. Michael was landing in the same two spots of the board every time.
The first indication that something abnormal was happening. Michael Larson went into an almost trance-like state. Complete tunnel vision as he timed his every move.
Every now and then he would exhibit brief moments of self-awareness and let out a nervous laugh, but he always returned to the task at hand. In the end, Michael Larson would spin the board 46 consecutive times without landing on a whammy. The host and his fellow contestants watched in disbelief. Michael's run lasted so long that the show ran out of time.
It would mark the first time that a single game of Press Your Luck would be continued in a second episode. And that's not the only record Michael Larson broke. He won a sailboat and trips to Kauai and the Bahamas, and almost $105,000 in cash, more than three times the amount of winnings that any person at that time had ever won on any game show.
In total, Michael Larson won $110,237 in cash and prizes, which would be worth a little more than a quarter of a million dollars in today's money.
In the short interview after the game, Michael told the host Peter Tamarkin that he planned to use the money to invest in real estate and that he would buy a birthday present for his six-year-old daughter, Jennifer. I understand that yesterday was your daughter's birthday? Yes. What happened? I didn't have any money really to buy her anything. She won't get something now. Very nice. Like perhaps the state of Tennessee? Yes.
Behind the scenes, the show's producers were scrambling to find an explanation for what had just happened. What Michael Larson had just accomplished was nearly statistically impossible. The chances of spinning the board over 45 times without encountering a whammy was less than one-third of 1%. The producers were convinced that Michael Larson had cheated.
Reminiscent of how Larson perfected his technique, Press Your Luck producers and CBS executives crowded into a small room to analyze the tape of his performance frame by frame. They eventually caught on to his method but found no evidence of deception. They decided that Michael Larson relied on nothing more than pure skill. One CBS executive told the game show network that, He had not broken any rules of the game, he had played fairly, and he was an eligible contestant.
We paid him his money. He was simply smarter than CBS. After Michael's appearance on the show, CBS reprogrammed the Press Your Luck board to follow 32 patterns instead of 5. Michael Larson returned to Ohio with more money than he had ever seen in his life. Besides a few television appearances immediately after his historic run, he retreated from the spotlight and he never got around to investing in real estate. Safe investments just weren't exciting enough for Michael Larson.
No, Michael Larson preferred games. When a local radio station announced the chance to win $30,000 by matching the serial number of a dollar bill to a random number the DJ would read over the air, Michael Larson drove to five different banks and withdrew $50,000 in $1 bills.
He and Teresa spent weeks combing through the money looking for a match, but never had any luck. And Michael never put the money back in the bank. Instead, he kept it stored in grocery bags that sat on the floor of his bedroom closet. The couple returned home from a Christmas party one evening to find that their front door had been kicked in. Their house was in shambles, and the grocery bags full of cash were gone. Michael Larson had lost all of his Press Your Luck winnings in less than two years. Soon after, Michael's girlfriend Teresa was gone too.
She said that Michael blamed her for the robbery and became more and more aggressive and angry until she couldn't take it anymore. She left with the kids and never looked back. Dead broke, Michael moved to Dayton, Ohio and began working as an assistant manager at Walmart. But he soon grew impatient with the meager earnings and started looking for new action. He even called Press Your Luck to see if they were interested in having him back for a championship round. They weren't.
If it was easy money Michael Larson was after, and it always was, he was going to have to find another way. In 1994, Michael, along with some business partners, created a nationwide telephone lottery game called the American Indian Lottery Program. They promised jackpots worth over $300 million, and all you needed was a telephone to play. Despite its name, there were no American Indians, nor was there a lottery. It was a scam from the beginning.
and in a few years, Michael's group had cheated over 20,000 investors out of $3 million. When the FBI, SEC, and IRS caught wind of his scheme and froze his assets, Larson fled to Florida and successfully disappeared. He was finally tracked down about five years later when he reappeared in a morgue after he died from cancer. Fifteen years after his record-breaking performance on Press Your Luck, Michael Larson was dead, penniless, and alone.
In terms of game show scandals, Michael Larson's story is near the top, even though he technically played the game by the rules. The same, however, cannot be said about Charles Ingram, who made national headlines in the United Kingdom after winning the grand prize on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. A British Army major appears on a popular television game show and cheats his way to a million pounds on this episode of Swindled.
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In September 1998, the trivia game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire took the United Kingdom by storm.
At its peak, the show was generating over 19 million viewers per episode. It was so popular that every week, one in every three Britain households tuned in to watch the drama unfold as contestants attempted to answer 15 multiple choice questions for a chance to win a million pounds. One of those households belonged to Charles and Diana Ingram, a married couple of high school sweethearts from Westbury, Weltshire. They had become obsessed with making an appearance on the show.
Charles Ingram, at 39 years old, had just returned to civilian life from a NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. He had joined the British Army's Corps of Royal Engineers in 1986 after completing a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and a master's degree in corporate management. He was promoted to the rank of major in 1995. It goes without saying, but Charles Ingram was a smart guy. But those who know the couple swear that the real brains in the Ingram family belonged to his wife Diana.
Together, Charles and Diana were an unstoppable force of intelligence, and they were ready to put it to the test in front of the entire country. On March 24th, 2000, Charles and Diana appeared as a team on a special couples edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but failed to make it past the gatekeeping round known as the fastest finger, where contestants are given a question and four answers to put in a particular order.
Whichever contestant puts the answer in the correct order the fastest gets to sit in the hot seat and compete for the grand prize. Disappointed with their performance, both Charles and Diana continued in their attempts to get a spot on the show. On April 9th, 2001, Diana Ingram was selected to make a second appearance, alone this time, and she was the only one in her group to correctly answer the fastest finger question. How many got it right? Only one! Diana Ingram in 5, 3, 8 seconds!
Diana flew through the early questions with little difficulty, but she became stumped on the 11th question, which asked for the name of who authored a poem titled The Hunting of the Snark. Diana went with her gut and answered Edward Lear. The correct answer was Lewis Carroll. She left the game with 32,000 pounds, matching the total won by her brother Adrian, who appeared on the show only months earlier after three unsuccessful tries.
Diana's husband Major Charles Ingram would get his shot at the million pounds later that same year in what would become the most infamous round of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire ever played. Charles Ingram arrived at the set of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire focused and ready. He had done some last minute cramming and received some tips and advice from his wife who would be sitting in the studio audience.
This is unimportant, but Charles also picked out one of the ugliest shirts man has ever witnessed to wear on the show. In the fastest finger round, Major Ingram found his way into the hot seat by correctly arranging the title of Agatha Christie's novel Death on the Nile in 3.97 seconds. Host Chris Tarrant welcomed Charles Ingram to the stage, introduced him to the audience, and referenced Diana's appearance on the show earlier that year.
When Tarrant asked what he would do with the money if he won, Charles said he planned to buy a pony for his children to share. After a quick transition, the game was in motion, and like his wife and so many other contestants before him, Charles Ingram had no trouble answering the early questions.
Questions like which of these objects would you use to air your laundry? And what is butterscotch? After the first five questions, Charles was guaranteed to leave the show with at least 1,000 pounds. But that was nowhere near his goal, and it wasn't going to be easy. Major Ingram struggled with the sixth question, which asked about a British soap opera. I bet you know this one. In Coronation Street, who is Audrey's daughter? Janice. Gail.
Charles had never seen Coronation Street, so he decided to use the first of his three lifelines to ask the studio audience for help. The audience results were overwhelmingly in favor of the name Gale at 89%. Charles trusted their answer and doubled his money. The seventh question had Charles befuddled as well.
He used the second lifeline to phone his friend Gerald to ask him which part of the United Kingdom could the River Foyle be found. Gerald was 99% sure that the answer was Northern Ireland. It's the right house, you've got £4,000. Good play. Okay Charles, we've got... God no. Oh God no. Can we come back tomorrow? Yep, that's the great news Charles, you're coming back tomorrow, you'll love it. Time had run out on the taping.
Charles would have to come back the following night to finish the game. His first night ended with 4,000 pounds in the bank and eight questions left until a million. But most worrisome was that he only had one lifeline remaining. Producers of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire did not expect Charles to last much longer. They knew that historically, contestants that used two of their lifelines in the first half of the game typically lasted a few more questions at most before cashing out or answering incorrectly.
but Charles Ingram had other plans. That evening, a 53-year-old college professor named Tecwen Widdick received a call from Diana Ingram. Tecwen and Diana knew each other from the game show circuit and had remained friendly. Coincidentally, Tecwen was set to appear on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" the following night as a fastest-finger contestant to compete for the spot vacated by Charles after he finished his game. It was evident to Diana that her husband was struggling and could never make it to the grand prize.
and knowing that Tecwen Widdick would be sitting relatively close to Charles on the game show floor, she proposed that they work together. The plan called for Charles to read through all four answer choices of every question, and for Tecwen, if he knew the correct answer, to cough when it was read. Tecwen agreed, presumably for a cut of the prize money. When the game resumed the next day, host Chris Tarrant asked Charles Ingram, who was wearing that same ugly shirt for a second day in a row, if he had a new strategy.
Charles admitted that he had played a bit too defensively the day before and that he planned to launch a counterattack. He planned to be a bit more aggressive. Charles claimed that he had talked himself out of answers that he should have known, even though at the time he openly admitted to having no clue. Regardless, it was a new day. It was a new Charles. It was the same shirt. And he wanted to be a millionaire. Question number eight asks for the name of the second husband of Jackie Kennedy.
It appeared that Major Ingram knew the answer right off the bat, but he decided to take his time, reading off every answer choice methodically and waiting for a cough before finally settling on Aristotle Anastas. So I'll just rethink this one for a moment. I'm pretty confident it's Aristotle Anastas. Yeah, I'm gonna go for Aristotle Anastas. You're a wild and crazy man, Major. Final answer? You only live once. Yeah, final answer.
Just a note, the coughs you are hearing have been enhanced for clarity. The majority of the studio audience wouldn't have noticed and they would have been inaudible on the broadcast. It appeared that Charles was second guessing himself when answering question 9, which asked for the origin country of Emmental cheese. Major Ingram sided with his first instinct and answered Switzerland. And he was right.
This was the only question of the night that he would answer without assistance. Charles was now up to 16,000 pounds. Their plan was working to perfection. Until it wasn't. Question 10 asked, Who had a hit UK album with Born To Do It released in 2000? A. Coldplay B. Toploader C. A1 or D. Craig David Do you know the answer to that question? Yeah, neither did Charles Ingram. Nor did Tecwan Wittick.
As Charles read through the answers, no cough ever came. He was going to have to work this one out for himself. Charles said he was familiar with the title, but it was clear that he didn't know the answer. His instinct was telling him that the answer was A1, the British boy band. Charles said he had never even heard of Craig David or Coldplay. You could see the frustration on Diana's face during camera shots of the audience. Charles was forced to use his final lifeline, the 50-50, which reduced the answer choices from 4 to 2.
The two answers that remained were A1 or Craig David, which only reinforced Charles' original guess. He repeated that he had never heard of Craig David and put his head in his hands and write as he was about to select A1 as his final answer. Two desperate coughs from his wife Diana in the audience. Charles changed his answer, D, Craig David, and to prolong the suspense, host Chris Tarrant cut to commercial.
When the program resumed, Tarrant attempted to retrace Charles Ingram's thought process, trying to make sense of how he arrived at that answer. He used a 50-50, cold play and top loader went. He then went for a one. Then because, I actually rather lost the plot of his thinking then, but basically because he reckons most of his guesses are 80% wrong, he changed his mind, knowing he'd lose £15,000 if he gave him the wrong answer, and went for Craig David, who he'd never heard of.
Must have been a lucky guess. As the game continued, the coughs became more constant and obvious. It took two coughs from Techwin Wittek on both questions 11 and 12 for Charles to finally recognize the correct answer. If he had decided to walk away from the game at this point, Charles would have gotten away scot-free with a check of 125,000 pounds.
but greed got the best of him, and he instructed the host that he wanted to continue playing. The next question asked what type of garment is named after 1930s British politician Anthony Eden, another question in which Charles Ingram did not know the answer, and neither did his coughing assistant. As Major Ingram deliberated with himself over the answer choices, Tecwen Widdick leaned over to Tom Lucey, the neighboring contestant sitting on the fastest-fingered panel, and quietly asked, "'What's that?'
Tom Lucy whispered to Tecwen that an Anthony Eden is the name for a specific type of hat. Three Tecwen Wittikoffs later, Charles answered correctly and won 250,000 pounds. Major Ingram was now two questions away from the one million pound grand prize. Have a look at question 14. Baron Haussmann is best known for his planning of which city? Rome Paris Berlin Athens
I think it's Berlin. I think. Charles immediately favors Berlin as his choice because Hausmann is a German name and perhaps a bit too impressed with his own flawless logic. Major Ingram seemingly forgets to cycle through the answer choices. He never gives Tecwen Wittig a chance to confirm his choice with a cough, so Tecwen Wittig blurts out no disguised as a cough
while Charles continued to mull over his decision. Take a listen. "I think it's Berlin." Charles didn't hear it. He was still set on Berlin, but finally reads each answer choice aloud. Thanks to a well-timed cough from Tecwen, you can see and hear the exact moment when Charles realizes that the correct answer is Paris. "I don't think it's Paris. I don't think it's Athens. I'm sure it's not Rome."
I'd have thought it's Berlin, but there's a chance it's Paris. Chris Tarrant explains to Charles that he does not have to play and gives him one more opportunity to walk away with 250,000 pounds. If Charles answered incorrectly, he would leave the game with only 32,000. If he answered correctly, he would win half a million. After a total of four coughs and two nose blows from Tecwen Wittig, Charles decided that it was worth the risk. Paris, final answer.
You thought it was Berlin, Berlin, Berlin. You change your mind to Paris. That brought you 500,000... Charles leaps out of his seat with excitement before Chris Tarrant reels him back in. The realization of what he had accomplished starts to set in as Tarrant hands him a check for half a million pounds. Charles Ingram was one question away from being a millionaire. If a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire reaches the final round, as Charles Ingram had, they are given an opportunity to view the final question.
After seeing the question, they can then decide to answer or to walk away with the prize they had already won. The final question in Charles' game was as follows: Predictably, Charles Ingram was not sure of the answer. His initial choice was Nanomole, which was wrong.
Luckily, Teckwin Wittig did know the correct answer. The answer was Google, a term in which Charles Ingram had regrettably told the host he wasn't familiar with. Chris Tarrant reminded Charles that he could walk away with half a million pounds. An incorrect answer would leave him with 32,000 and result in a loss of 468,000 pounds. Over five minutes of broadcast time had elapsed before Charles submitted his final answer. He could hardly stand the anticipation.
He begged Tarrant not to go to a commercial break, but he was unsuccessful. Charles Ingram would have to wait a few more minutes to find out if he had just become a millionaire. When the show returned, host Chris Tarrant reached out his hand towards Charles and asked for the cheque. Charles, give me that cheque. £500,000. You no longer have that. You've just won £1,000,000! You are the most amazing contestant we have ever had!
Diana, come on down. Come on, my darling, come on. Major Charles Ingram, also known as the most amazing contestant to ever appear on the show, according to Chris Tarrant at the time, became the third person in the history of the British version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to win the grand prize. Tarrant embraced Charles with a hug and told him that he was an amazing human being. Diana left her seat in the audience and joined her husband on the stage to celebrate.
Buried underneath the cheers of the audience, Diana asked Charles, quote, How the hell did you do it? Of course, Diana already knew that Charles had cheated. And so did the producers of the show, who were already busy backstage trying to prove it. Support for Swindled comes from Rocket Money.
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I actually found surprising, at the end of the complete recording, you'll go and have a drink, in my case quite a few drinks, and he wasn't there. And I'd have thought, you know, if I'd won a million pounds, or if I'd won any sort of money, I'd have been celebrating. That's Maurice Braun. He sat on the fastest finger panel during Charles Ingram's game, and he had found the Major's post-victory behaviour to be rather odd. And Maurice wasn't the only one.
A researcher for the show met Charles in his dressing room after the taping and offered a celebratory drink. Charles refused, telling her that he had to go to work in the morning, and he asked her to leave the room. On her way out, through the closed door, the researcher heard what sounded like an argument between Charles and Diana, which she thought was a strange way to celebrate winning a million pounds.
Meanwhile, back on stage, the contestants were battling in the fastest finger contest to see who would replace Charles Ingram in the hot seat. Coincidentally, when it was Tecwin Wittek's turn to play the game, his persistent cough had cleared up, although he could have used some help of his own.
Techwin didn't even make it halfway through the game. He lost on the 8,000 pound question about meatballs. Before leaving the studio, Charles and Diana Ingram were patted down by members of the production team who made it seem like the search was a customary part of being on the show. Nothing was found so the Ingrams were allowed to leave, but they did not have the million pound check in hand. Cellador, the production company behind Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, told the Ingrams that it would take a few days to process.
In reality, Selador was buying time to review the footage from Charles' taping. Multiple members of the production crew had noticed the coughing while it was happening, but it was decided to let the game finish just in case there was nothing to it. It was theorized that Charles Ingram and his cohorts might have tried to use a system of vibrating pagers and cell phones to rig the game.
The researcher for the show had reported seeing Diana Ingram's younger brother, Marcus Powell, outside of the studio on his cell phone during the taping on multiple occasions, which is a violation of the rules. The production coordinator was alerted, and Marcus Powell was given the option to abstain from using his phone or to be escorted off of the premises. Marcus chose to return to his seat, and a cell door security officer was assigned to keep an eye on him for the duration of the recording.
A few of the contestants on the fastest finger panel had come forward with their suspicions as well. One of them in particular, a man named Larry Whitehurst, found it strange that the cougher made no attempt to stifle the coughs as if they were intended to be heard. He claimed that he caught on to the pattern of coughs early on in the game and was convinced that Charles Ingram and Tequin Wittig had cheated.
Sound supervisors for Selador analyzed the audio and isolated every cough, almost 200 of them, that happened in the studio during those two days of taping. 19 of the coughs, 18 from Tequin Wittek and one from Diana Ingram, were deemed significant and were directly linked to strategic moments of Charles Ingram's game. Analysis of the video footage provided even more evidence that Charles had cheated.
Typically, family members who sat in the audience would either stare straight ahead at their loved one in the hot seat or glance up at the monitor for a closer look. The video footage of Diana Ingram in the audience showed her continuously looking down and to her left towards the fastest finger panel, towards Tequin Wittig, towards the coughs that would make her husband a millionaire. With undeniable evidence in hand, Cellador Productions decided not to air Charles' episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
and they refused to pay out the million pound prize. Paul Smith, the managing director of Cellador, called Charles at home to deliver the bad news. Mr. Ingram, we didn't meet. I am the managing director of Cellador. Right. I think I should just get straight to the point and effectively say what is a pre-prepared statement here. I have to tell you that we have suspicions that
from viewing the recording of last Monday's programme and subsequently studying the tapes carefully, that there were irregularities during the tipping of the show in which you participated. Oh, good Lord, no. Because of that, I have to tell you that these suspicions have been referred to the police. Right. And thus, we, not for the moment, will be airing the programme or indeed authorising payment of the cheque. Right.
Charles Ingram's reaction to the phone call came as a bit of a surprise to the Selador executives. For a man who had just lost a million pounds over something that he claimed he did not do, and for a man who was now at the center of a police investigation, Charles Ingram had not put up much of a fight.
at least not on the phone. Charles would later file a civil lawsuit against Selador with a frozen prize money plus £240,000 in legal costs. The lawsuit was dismissed.
Despite their claims of innocence, on July 31st, 2002, Charles Ingram, Diana Ingram, and Tecwenna Wittig were arrested and charged with procuring the execution of a valuable security by
by deception. The trial was scheduled for March 3rd, 2003 in the Crown Court of England in Wales. All three defendants pleaded not guilty. On the stand, Tecwen Wittig admitted to coughing during his time on the show, but attributed it to a combination of asthma, hay fever, and dust allergies. Wittig testified that it would have been silly to attempt to cheat the game, knowing that he was surrounded by cameras and microphones. Furthermore, Wittig claimed that he was actively rooting against Ingram because he wanted his shot in the hot seat.
and he claimed that his cough disappeared after drinking several glasses of water during intermission, a claim that his personal doctor substantiated. Tequin Wittek was also asked about the phone call with Diana Ingram on the first night of her husband's appearance. Diana said the call was simply to wish Tequin good luck on his upcoming appearance on the show. Wittek's defense pointed out that the call lasted less than five minutes and asked rhetorically how a plan of such magnitude could have been arranged in such a short amount of time.
Charles Ingram took the stand and asserted that he had known the answer to every question that was asked except for the final one, which he was able to figure out through a process of elimination using his skills in math and physics. Charles claimed to be unaware of the phone call between his wife and Tequin Wittig and admitted to being devastated when he found out about it. Charles Ingram was adamant that he did not hear any coughing. He was adamant that he did not cheat, and there were some people who believed him.
A commander of the British Army, served as a character witness for Charles. He referred to Major Ingram as a quote: "an officer of the utmost integrity and complete honesty." Struggling to reach the front entrance, Major Ingram managed a smile. Media there co-accused, Hequin Wittock, had a similar reception at the court in central London. Afterwards, Major Ingram and his wife left the court by the back door. The media once more in pursuit.
The trial lasted four weeks in total and was delayed an extra day because of uncontrollable coughing from the jury. No, seriously. In the end, the defenses of the three accused were no match for the audio and video evidence that was presented. The jury found all three defendants guilty. Charles and Diana were fined £15,000 each plus cost of £10,000 each.
The couple also received suspended prison sentences of 18 months, which meant neither Charles nor Diana would spend a day in jail. Tequin Wittek received a similar punishment of a £10,000 fine plus £7,500 in cost and a 12-month suspended prison sentence. Wittek was also forced to resign from his position as a lecturer and submitted an application to trademark his name after he discovered that there was a cough medication named after him.
A few months after his conviction, Charles Ingram found himself back in court over an insurance claim. In August 2001, the Ingrams applied for a £30,000 insurance payout after a burglary of their home. The insurance company discovered that the policy had been purchased only a few weeks before the purported burglary and that Charles Ingram had an extensive history of insurance claims that he, quote, forgot to declare. Charles was found guilty of two more counts of deception.
After the very public trial in which the media nicknamed him "Major Fraud" and "The Coughing Major", Charles Ingram and his wife Diana tried to return to their normal lives but found great difficulty in doing so. Because of his fraud conviction, Charles received a temporary administrative discharge from the Ministry of Defense. He was essentially forced into retirement and forced to live off his pension.
Charles would no longer receive a salary from the army, and his family could no longer stay in the five-bedroom house that the government rented on his behalf. The Ingrams' financial situation continued to worsen until they were forced to declare bankruptcy in October 2004. However, court-imposed fines are not included in bankruptcies, so they asked a judge to reduce their fines from £60,000 to £30,000.
This appeal was partially granted, even though the judge accused the couple of quote, cynically manipulating their finances to avoid paying back the cost. In order to reclaim their lives, the Ingrams needed more than just financial relief. Charles, Diana, and their three daughters experienced abuse and harassment from the public for years after the scandal. In an interview with the Daily Mail in 2007, Charles detailed the acts of aggression and vandalism that his family had been subjected to
Quote, It is endless. Two weeks ago, a bag of vomit was thrown at the house. Two weeks before that, youths broke into the garden and smashed three of the windows. We've had nails and screws placed on the drive. Cheat scratched into the paintwork of the car, and the wheelie bin is continually emptied over our garden. Last year, one of our dogs was kicked and punched by a gang of youths and later died. My wife has been surrounded by taunting gangs of youths, shouting, cheating bitch.
There was also an incident on April 30th, 2006 during Charles Ingram's daily jog. As he approached a group of kids ahead of him, one 13-year-old boy stepped into his path and coughed so loudly in Charles' face that spit landed on his lip. Charles flew into a rage and grabbed the kid by the lapels and told him, quote, You do that again and you'll regret it. The 13-year-old kid called the police and reported that he had been assaulted by Charles Ingram.
And even though the teenager would eventually admit to exaggerating his story, Charles Ingram was found guilty of common assault, which led to him receiving an absolute discharge from the army. Around this time, Charles told a reporter that his family motto should be one step forward and two steps back. Quote,
Life had become so bleak for Charles Ingram that at one point he had even contemplated suicide, telling a reporter, quote, I had 40 pills in one hand and a glass of water in the other. It was about 10.30 p.m. and I was in bed. Then something stopped me. My mobile phone buzzed. It was a text message from one of Charles' daughters that read, quote, We all have faith in you, Dad. Charles Ingram says the scandal has made him unemployable.
He makes money by repairing computers for friends and acquaintances and spends the rest of his time writing novels. His wife Diana makes and sells homemade jewelry. The couple eventually found a way to take advantage of their newfound notoriety by appearing on reality TV shows such as Celebrity Poker Club and Celebrity Wife Swap. Not an ideal career path, but it was an honest living. As the first decade of the 2000s came to a close, so did Charles Ingram's Celebrity.
The last time he made headlines was in 2010 when he accidentally slipped on a rotten apple in his yard and severed two and a half toes with a lawnmower. Quote,
The episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, featuring Charles Ingram's scandalous run, was broadcasted about eight months after its original planned air date, resulting in record-breaking ratings and viewership. Even though host Chris Tarrant testified that he had never heard the coughing in the studio that day, he referred to Charles' appearance on the show as, quote, a very cynical plan, motivated by sheer greed.
As of 2016, Charles Ingram had only paid £1240 of the £25,000 he owed, all the while continuing to live in an 18th century cottage in Westbury, Wiltshire, all the while his children attended an expensive private school. The trials and the repeated failed appeals related to the cheating scandal have reportedly costed taxpayers more than £8 million in total, but that's none of Charles' concern.
It's he and Diana versus the world. Quote, We have pulled together, not apart. As we try to work as a team, we have to. Because really, it's just us. Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with music by Ethan Helfrich. For more information about the show, visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at swindledpodcast.
If you want to support the show, you can do so by going to patreon.com slash swindled. For five bucks a month, you will get early access to new episodes and exclusive access to bonus episodes. You'll also receive free merch sometimes. We just sent out free art prints to every patron that wanted one. Also, Swindled donates 5% of our Patreon proceeds to a different charity each month. So not only will you be supporting me, you will be supporting a good cause. Go check it out, patreon.com slash swindled.
You can support the show another way by buying a t-shirt, a hat, a hoodie, or a beanie from swindledpodcast.com slash shop. We're adding new stuff all the time, so go check it out. Also, I want to remind you that Swindled will be at the first annual True Crime Podcast Festival on July 13th, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois.
Come hang out with us and other podcasters from shows you love. For the entire list of shows that will be appearing, you can go to tcpf2019.com and there's also ticket and hotel information. Hope to see you there. That's it. Make sure you stay tuned to hear promos from other independent podcasts. Thanks for listening.
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