Who Wants To Be A Millionaire scandal and trial that cost £1m (2024)

A couple managed to swindle Who Want's To Be A Millionaire out of its grand prize by coughing through the answers.

The ITV quiz show was at the heart of evening television with a run spanning almost two decades. During that time, its presenter, Chris Tarrant, welcomed countless players that walked away with millions of pounds.

The premise of the show was to simply get as many correct answers as possible until you reached the £1m jackpot. If a player, at any point, answered a question wrong without banking their cash, they'd leave with nothing.

Though simple in premise, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire was one of the most critically acclaimed quiz shows of the century. The British Film Institute even credited it for revolutionising game shows and being one of the top British programmes of all time.

With its lengthy run came multiple controversies. They included paid quiz masters who would receive a cut of the prize money for taking part in the phone-a-friend lifeline and criminal contestants. Most infamous was the coughing scandal from 2001 that saw a couple walk away with £1m of unearned money.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire sometimes spanned two nights due to time constraints, which was the case for Charles Ingram's run. Charles appeared on the show with a nervous demeanour, just barely scraping together £4,000 before it had to wrap for the night. Returning a day later, he appeared to be much more relaxed and eager to ace the competition.

Charles switched tactics as he returned to the hot seat - this time reading out every single answer as he contemplated them. On the tenth question for £32,000, out loud, Charles said: "Who had a hit UK album with Born to Do It, released in 2000?"

The former army major admitted he'd 'never heard' of Craig David but after a woman coughs at the mention of his name, Charles decided to go with that answer. The woman coughing was his wife, Diana, who was sneakily gesturing to him what answer he should pick.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire scandal and trial that cost £1m (1)

Diana continued to help her partner throughout the show and, whenever she was stumped, would ask the fellow would-be contestants by her side if they knew the answer. Upcoming contestants would align the audience in the hope of a chance to sit in the hot seat for future episodes. Among those was an accomplice by the name of Tecwen Whittock who also fed Diana answers.

After whispering to the people to her side - unaware she was helping Charles cheat - Diana would once again cough to the correct option. Making it to the final question, one final cough solidified a £1m win for them both. After viewing the recording, producers were alerted to the scam and eventually pinpointed the relationship between the pair which was previously unknown.

With reason to believe cheating was in place, the production company withheld the money and contacted the police. All three were charged with "procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception", and taken to Southwark Crown Court in 2003. That year, all three were handed suspended prison sentences and fines. Charles and Diana were given 18 months whereas Tecwen was given 12 months. All three were made to pay fines totalling £115,000.

Once the scandal hit the media, it eventually snowballed into a documentary titled, Millionaire: A Major Fraud. The documentary featured excerpts from both the trial and interviews with the production staff, soon leading to a television adaptation in 2020 for ITV called Quiz.

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