Charles Ingram

Charles Ingram appeared on Who Wants to be a Millionaire UK on September 9-10, 2001 and won a million pounds. However, it was discovered that he cheated his way there.

Night 1
On the first night of his game, when he got into the hot seat, he got through the first four questions without using any lifelines. On the fifth question, he still didn't use a lifeline, but took a while to answer. On both questions 6 and 7, he used a lifeline on each of them. He used two of his lifelines way too early. After 7 questions, he won 4,000 pounds, but then the show ran out of time, so he had to come back tomorrow to continue.

After the Show
Having watched and recorded several episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, the Millionaire team thought that if you used two of your lifelines by the end of the night, you've usually struggled up to that point and you're expected to last only a couple of questions and be gone. The host Chris Tarrant thought that Charles chances of winning 32,000 pound were the chances of going to the moon in a rocket. Since he only had one lifeline left, Chris expected Charles to get to 16,000 and be on his way. He was in for a big suprise...

Meanwhile, Charles and his wife Diana Ingram who accompanied Charles in the audience called one of the Fastest Finger Contestants who would appear on the next show that night, named Tecwen Whittock. It is here where Tecwen joins the Ingram's scam to cheat to the million, and this is where the "Major Fraud" begins.

Night 2
On the next night, before starting the game, Chris asks Charles if he has a strategy. Charles said that he was a little defensive on the last show so he's going on the counter attack. But what everyone doesen't know is that his real strategy is to cheat. On nearly every question that night, he would try to say all four choices by giving a humourous comment on each of them. Then Tecwen, who's the FFC seat right behind Charles, coughs immediately after Charles says the correct answer. After the first question of the night (8,000 pounds) some of the millionaire team are starting to think there's something strange going on. They expected him to struggle, but he seemed to be doing fine. During the later questions, Charles chooses to play it safe and check around all the answers multiple times leading to more constant coughing from Tecwen. After passing the 32,000 pound mark, he obviously had the option to walk away with what he had, but he had his eyes on the bigger prize and greed took over. As they got closer to the million, Tecwen's coughing draws atention not only from the millionaire team, but the FFC's as well. Larry Whitehurst, Tom Lucy and Robert Bryndges noticed that when Tecwen coughed, he made a really loud one. If they were coughing, they wouldn't want anyone to hear it and they would try to keep it silent, so they knew he was coughing loudly for a reason. They noticed during the 500,000 pound question that he semed to cough only after the answer that was correct. They wondered, "Is this guy giving Charles the answers. They decide to pay attention to Tecwen during the million pound question. They knew the answer to the question before the four choices came up, so they were really able to focus on Tecwen. Of course, they didn't want him to cough otherwise they knew he was cheating, but they wanted him to cough to know that they're right. After Charles says the right answer, they hear Tecwen cough and they got him. As the show went to commercial after Charles guessed, the millionaire team were sure something was wrong and they thought they should stop the recording. But the director said no and they had to just finish the recording and worry about Charles cheating later. After coming back on the air, Charles is declared a millionaire and the most amazing contestant they ever, ever had. Everyone applaudes except for Larry, who knew he was cheating. He was disappointed in the applauding and wondered if he was the only one there who knew Charles' cheated, but he wasn't. Tom and Robert, were just as unimpressed. After Charles and Diana walk off the set, they hugged. Then the team searched Charles for any devices but came up empty handed. The Ingram's then go to their dressing room. But instead of celebrating, they have a huge quarrel. The millionaire team heard arguing was going on and were now 100% sure something was up. Apparently, Diana who organized the scam only wanted to make it to 64,000 pounds and leave so they would have less of a chance of getting caught. The millionaire team also thought if they wanted to escape scot free without getting caught, they should've stopped at 125,000. But greed took control of Charles and he carried on to the million. The team knew that since they won a million, they should've been happy, but they're not. They knew something was wrong, but couldn't make out what, so they had to finish the recording before searching for evidence of cheating. While the Ingram's are aruging, Tecwen Whittock makes it to the hot seat, immediately after Charles. Some of team notice that his cough was now gone and he was fine. Tecwen didn't last long though. He got the 4,000 pound question right, but the 8,000 pound one wrong, so he left with 1,000 pounds and that's when the show ended.

After the show (again)
Once the show's over, the team start searching for evidence. They took all the tapes from the cameras and put them all up on a screen. Before long, they noticed that all the coughs were linked to the questions and finally figured out what was going on.

The following day, Charles receives a call from Celador Productions. He was told that there suspicions of the activities he took part in during the recording and the suspicions were referred to the police. So they wouldn't be airing the show or rewarding him his check. Charles obviously said he wasn't doing anything suspicious and said goodbye. During the phone call, Charles didn't feel upset at all. He just said thanks for telling him and hung up. What the millionaire team was telling him that he just chated them of a million pounds and expect an upset reaction.

The trial
With that, the game is up, for Charles, Diana and Tecwen. They have no other choice but to resort to one idea. They didn't do it. Charles said he swore that he did not cheat and he didn't recall hearing any coughing. Diana claims she never met Tecwen, but throughout the night, she was looking in his direction. The jury were shown the tape of Charles million pound run and heard all of Tecwen Whittock's coughs in isolation better then one could hear it in a broadcast. The jury found the trio guilty and the judge said to give up any hopes that they're entitled to the million.

Trial aftermath
The Ingrams were both sentenced to 18 months in prison while Tecwen was sentenced to 12. The Ingram's had to pay total court fees of 115,000 pounds rather than receieve the million pounds. The trio appeared on one talk show after another and their story remained the same. They didn't do it. Their reputations were ruined. They risked everything to cheat to a million and lost it all. Charles now repairs computers for a living. Robert Bryndges, one of the Fastest Finger Contestants who caught Charles red-handed, wrote a novel about the major and became the shows true third millionaire.

Months after the recording, Charles run was finally aired along with a couple of interviews fro the team with Chris Tarrant as the host. A documentary was also aired called Who Wants to be a Millionaire Major Fraud, featuring Charles run to the million, interviews from the team and FFC's who suspected cheating and the coughs in isolation just like the jury heard them at the trial. The Documentary was followed up by a special called The Final Answer, where it was announced that Celador Productions, the company that made Who Wants to be a Millionaire UK, plan to make a movie based on the fraud called Millionaire: The Movie, but over a decade has passed since the Major Fraud and the movie has not yet been seen.