'Millionaire' trio guilty of TV show coughing con

An army officer, his wife and a college lecturer are given fines and suspended jail sentences for their game-show scam

The Who Wants to be a Millionaire host Chris Tarrant condemned the "sheer greed" of three people who tried to cheat their way to his top prize last night after a judge spared them a jail sentence because he believed they were "decent people".

An Army major, Charles Ingram, his wife and a college lecturer, who all became obsessed with the television quiz show, were convicted of cheating after a month-long trial.

They could have been jailed for up to seven years but Judge Geoffrey Rivlin said he was suspending the sentences because of evidence portraying all three as "decent people with many fine qualities". Ingram and Whittock, he said, were "good family men'' while Diana Ingram was "an excellent Army wife and caring mother of three daughters".

Ingram, 39, of the Royal Engineers, who has served in Bosnia; his wife, Diana, also 39, from Easterton, Wiltshire, and Tecwen Whittock, of Whitchurch, Cardiff, were convicted by majority verdicts at Southwark Crown Court. Ingram and his wife, a nursery nurse, were each sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, and each fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 costs. Whittock, head of business studies at Pontypridd College, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £7,500 costs.

The judge said he believed they were motivated by an obsession with quiz shows rather than greed. Describing their cheating as a "shabby schoolboy trick'', he said: "You certainly had no notion it would result in you, Charles Ingram, going on to win £1m. But somehow, more by good luck than good management, it did.''

The trial was told that Ingram had cheated his way to the top prize on the show in September 2001 helped by 19 strategically timed coughs by Whittock, who had been waiting to take his turn as a contestant. The coughs came as clues to Ingram as he mulled aloud over possible answers to six of the 15 questions needed to be guessed correctly to win the top prize. He was only the third person to win the £1m since the show began in 1998.

Police were called because production staff on the programme had become suspicious about the coughing.

The court watched the unedited programme, which was not broadcast, and heard evidence from the presenter, Mr Tarrant, who described the night Ingram won the prize as "extraordinary – unlike anything else we had ever seen".

Whittock claimed he had suffered from asthma, although his coughing stopped by the time he took his turn in the hot seat, winning £1,000.

The court heard how mobile phone records showed how the couple had plotted with Whittock, although they pretending not to know each other during the show's recording.

Mr Tarrant said: "This was a very cynical plan, motivated by sheer greed. It is hugely insulting to the hundreds and hundreds of other contestants who have come on the show, just hoping for much smaller amounts of money but prepared to try and win their money honestly.'' He said he felt "very sad'' about the trio, but had no sympathy for them.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said Ingram's conviction did not mean automatic expulsion from the Army. An internal inquiry will be carried out. "The outcome ... could range from a verbal reprimand all the way through to asking him to resign his commission."

The programme-makers, Celador, have made a documentary about the affair, to be screened this month. It will include Ingram's appearance.