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| Diana Ingram: Her husband ‘took risks’ to win on TV |
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Millionaire winner took risks but did not cheat, wife tells court
JAMES DOHERTY
THE wife of an army major has told a court that her husband did not cheat his way to the top prize on the television quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Diana Ingram, 39, a nursery nurse, said that her husband, Charles, also 39, did not win the £1 million prize through a series of coded coughs from a college lecturer in the audience, as claimed, but did so by "taking risks".
Giving evidence at Southwark Crown Court in London yesterday, she said: "I would not have played for £1 million but I don’t like taking risks like he does."
She insisted that if she had been in the "hot seat", she would probably have left at the £250,000 stage and would not have gambled past the £500,000 mark.
The Ingrams, of High Street, Easterton, Wiltshire, and Tecwen Whittock, 53, of Heol-y-Gors, Whitchurch, Cardiff, the head of business studies at Pontypridd College, South Wales, deny one count of procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception on 10 September, 2001. The Crown has claimed Whittock, who was one of ten "fastest finger first" contestants while Ingram was answering questions from the host, Chris Tarrant, used 19 strategically-placed coughs to help the major choose correct answers.
After taking the witness stand on the 12th day of the trial, Diana Ingram was asked by her QC, Adrian Redgrave: "The accusation made against you here is of dishonest involvement in a scheme to cheat your husband’s way to £1 million. Is it true or false?"
"False," she replied.
She was also questioned at length about a string of calls made to various pagers.
Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting, has suggested she and her husband, a Royal Engineers officer, may initially have considered using four vibrating pagers placed around the body as part of a system to let him know which of the four options offered was the correct answer to a question.
Mr Hilliard, however, told the jury that the couple may have abandoned such an approach as "too risky".
Diana Ingram said she only used pagers to contact her brothers, Adrian Powell and Marcus Pollock.
She explained the computer consultants were compelled to "disappear" for a time during the summer of 2001 and had not only refused to divulge their whereabouts, but would not answer their mobile phones either.
They had suggested she call one of several pagers if she wanted to contact them.
During further questioning, she was asked how she came to know Whittock.
She told the jury that she met the college lecturer through her brother, Adrian. She said that both men were interested in the ITV1 show and strategies for winning.
For some months, the two men would discuss the best way of "increasing your chances" of being picked to appear, but when her brother had to go abroad, he then asked his sister to liaise with Whittock.
The major claims he had never met the lecturer before the cheating allegations arose.
The trial has already seen Tarrant give evidence. He said he could not remember hearing coughs and was "shocked" when he heard of the cheating allegations.
The court has also heard that both the major and his wife had appeared on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? before. However, on his previous appearance, Charles Ingram had failed to get through the initial "fastest finger first" stage.
His wife had won £32,000 when she was in the hot seat and, along with her brother, Adrian Powell, had written a book - never published - on how to win £1 million. Mr Powell had appeared on the show four times previously and had won £32,000.
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