Ingram, Charles

Ingram was born in Sherdlow (Derbyshire). He graduated from Oswestry High School, Kingston Polytechnic College (Bachelor of Civil Engineering), Army College of Management and Technology at Cranfield University (Master of Corporate Management). Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Management and the Charter Institute of Management, the Project Management Association and the Society of Authors . In January 2003, joined the organization " Mensa ". In 1986, Ingram was drafted into the British Army after studying at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst ; served in the Royal Engineers Corps ^[3] . Made in captains in 1990 ^[4] and in the majors in 1995 ^[5] . He served in 1999 in Bosnia and Herzegovina for half a year as part of the NATO peacekeeping contingent. Dismissed in August 2003 after fraud and stripped of his rank of Major ^{[6] [7]} .

The show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Was held by Celador , filming went to Elstree Studios in the city of Borehamwood ( Hertfordshire ). On September 9 and 10, 2001, the program was recorded on ITV with its permanent presenter Chris Tarrent . Charles Ingram should, like all other participants, answer 15 questions correctly. The last question was:

What is the number with 100 zeros called?

• A: ' Googol
• B: Megatron
• C: Gigabit
• D: Nanomole

Original Text (Eng.)

A number of words followed by one hundred.
A: Googol
B: Megatron
C: Gigabit
D: Nanomole

Ingram chose answer A and won a million pounds. However, the payment was stopped after Charles was charged that his wife Diana and accomplice Tekven Whittock specially coughing on every question when Ingram chose the answer; Moreover, before the program was released, Ingram spoke about the accusation ^[8] . For 4 weeks in the Crown Court Southwork was going on, the jury considered the verdict for more than 3 days. As a result, Charles and Diana on April 7, 2003 were convicted of fraud, namely, in obtaining the amount of money or securities by fraud. Diana Ingram earlier participated in the show, as did her brother Adrian Pollock: both won 32,000 pounds ^[9] , making mistakes on questions worth 64,000 (Adrian even tried to use the 50 to 50 hint) ^[10] .

On April 7, 2003, Charles and Diana Ingram, as well as Tekven Whittock, received a two-year prison sentence. After appealing to Charles and Diana, the term was reduced to one and a half years, to Whittock to one year. All of them were fined a total of 15 thousand pounds, but for delaying the investigation Ingram received 115 thousand pounds sterling fine. On August 19, 2003, the Army Council deprived Ingram of the rank of Major, retaining his pension ^[11] . On May 19, 2004, the appellate court rejected Ingram's appeal, reducing only the fine. ^[12] On October 5, 2004, the House of Lords rejected another appeal, and Ingram filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights . On October 20, 2004, the court decided to reduce the fine to Charles Ingram to 25 thousand pounds, Diana Ingram to 5 thousand pounds. ^[13] . On May 21, 2005, Ingram filed an application with the Commission for the Review of Criminal Cases, and in the fall of 2006, the Commission decided that there was no reason to quash the conviction.

In defense of Ingram, his wife, and Whittock, James Plaskett spoke in his interview with Bob Wuffinden , who was interested in identifying the mistakes of the judicial investigation. On October 9, 2004, the Daily Mail published an article “ Is the Coughing Major Guilty?” ( Eng. Is The Coughing Major Innocent? ) By Wuffinden. The case was discussed in the blog “Comment Is Free” of The Guardian newspaper on July 17, 2006, by the skeptic John Ronson ^[14] . In January 2015, Plaskett and Wuffinden published the book “Bad Show: Quiz, Cough and Millionaire Major” ( English Bad Show: The Quiz, The Cough, The Millionaire Major ), the preface to which was published in the Daily Mail on January 17 of the same of the year "Was the coughing major innocent?" ( Eng. Was the coughing Major INNOCENT? ). The book opened new evidence, questioning the previous investigation ^[15] .

Video

The evidence in court was the video of the entire broadcast. Ingram claimed that the recording was specially mounted, and that they were illegally manipulated: according to him, the editors of Celador specially prepared a video on which cough sounds were clearly distinguished, besides the votes of Ingram and Tarrent, in order to specifically slander Ingram and convince the jury and television viewers of his guilt . Ingram denied that there was some kind of cough. According to the prosecution, out of 192 cough sounds, 32 were recorded among the participants of the qualifying round, 19 of these sounds on the video tape were “significant”: Whittock published them at the time of giving the correct answer. It was considered that the cough corresponded to the ordinal number of the answer: one cough to answer A, two to answer B, three to answer C, four to answer D ^[16] . Tarrent also denied rumors of coughing, saying that he was too busy to pay attention to this ^[17] .

Larry Whitehurst's testimony

Four times participating in the selection, Larry Whitehurst was convinced that he knew all the answers to questions Ingram. He told the court that he noticed the sounds of coughing and realized that coughing helped Ingram ^[18] . On the 14th question, Whitehurst looked at Tehwen Whittock, who coughed too much and blew his nose, because Ingram was going to give the wrong answer. The answer to the question, worth £ 1 million, was also known by Whitehurst, so he followed Whittock's actions. As soon as he coughed, Whitehurst clearly remembered this moment.

Tekwen Whittock testimony

Whittock denied the fact that he specifically coughed to help Charles Ingram: he explained this by saying that he had a chronic allergy to dust, expressed in the form of persistent cough, and also hay fever ^[19] ; as a result of this, Whittock, in his words, was unthinkable to blame for having somehow helped Ingram ^{[20] [21]} . However, the jury received evidence that when Whittock turned to the right, his cough ceased ^[21] . Whittock explained that he drank several glasses of water before turning to the camera ^[22] . He denied the facts about knowing the answers to at least three questions, but the police confirmed that he knew the answer to question 12 “Who wrote the painting“ Ambassadors ? ”( Hans Holbein the Younger ): a manuscript book was found in his house ^[21] .

Davis, who followed order at the studio, noticed that someone had begun to cough on the recordings, and decided to find the culprit. In his words, it was Tuckwen who was chatting with someone to the left of Davis, and then turned to the player’s chair and began to cough again. Whittock also said that decent people do not cough each other in the face ^[23] . Whittock also added that he was a chronic loser in TV quizzes, since he dropped out in the first round of the show “15 to 1” and won only one prize - an atlas - in the show “Sale of the Century” ^[24] , but on BBC Radio 4 he won in Welsh stage show "Brain of Britain", in 1994 in the semifinals, lost the finalist. In 1997, he took 3rd place in the same show (won by Daphne Fowler).

After the show

Chris Tarrent, who celebrated his victory with the Ingrams in the dressing room and drank champagne, said that Ingram was fine, signing a check for £ 1 million. He stated that if there was something wrong, he would not have signed the check at all. Tarrent confirmed that the Ingrams behaved naturally like any winner of a lottery or the same TV show, but on the way to the dressing room they allegedly heard some unpleasant exchange of phrases ^[17] . A member of the film crew, Yves Winstantely, said that Ingram did not look as happy as the TV show winner. ^[25] Celador retained all the videotapes, reviewing them before and after contacting the police, and then together with the company Editworks collected them for display in court. In court, Paul Smith from Celador Productions confirmed that his company was preparing a TV show with witnesses in the case for an ITV show. She was shown a month later in the program “Tonight With Trevor McDonald - Major Fraud”, which was watched by 17 million people. After 13 days, the program was released in the USA, and the next day another ITV program “The Final Answer” was shown on the same case (5 million viewers).

Verdict

As a result, the jury found compelling videotapes and Whitehurst’s testimony before adding that there are coincidences. During the discussion, one of the jurors was suspended. The head of the jury told the judge that by majority vote Ingram and Tekvin were found guilty, but Diane was not, but the judge refused to accept such a verdict, insisting on a criminal conspiracy. In the end, all three were found guilty, Charles Ingram received 20 months in prison conditionally, and Diana and Tekven 18 months in prison conditionally. Sentence judge Jeffrey Rivlin said that Ingram could have received a real prison sentence if it were not for a mitigating circumstance in the form of three minor children ^[26] .

In 2003, Ingramov was again brought to criminal responsibility: on October 28, the Bornmout Crown Court found Charles Ingram guilty of fraud. According to the verdict, Ingram requested compensation for the theft of his insured property from his home. Ingram said nothing about what the requirements of the insurance company Direct Line Insurance (he was its client) had been fulfilled for three years before he received the policy in July 2001. The court found out that Ingram was a client of Norwich Union and often “by coincidence” lost his own things. He made seven claims from 1991 to 1997, including claims for a stolen bag (1600 pounds), a ring (430 pounds) and a broken ornament (42 pounds).

Prosecutor Christopher Parker said that Ingram cooperated with the Zurich Insurance Group company since 1997 after reducing the requirements of the Norwich Union to 9 thousand pounds sterling (insurance could only be obtained if the property was burglary in the amount of 9 thousand pounds sterling) and in 2000 became a client of the "Direct Line". By hiding information about his insurance history, Ingram has illegally demanded £ 30,000. Fraud was revealed only after the scandal on the show ^[27] .

Ingram lives in Easterton with his wife, Diana, and three daughters: Porsche, Rosie, and Hester. After being discharged from the army, he wrote two stories: “The Network” ( English The Network , April 27, 2006) and “The Deep Siege” ( English Deep Siege , October 8, 2007) ^[28] . Ingram works as a computer master, his wife is in the jewelry business ^[29] . In November 2004 and November 2005, the Ingram spouses were declared bankrupt ^[30] .

Indian writer Vikas Swarup took Ingram's story as the basis for his 2005 Q & A novel, which was the basis for the film Slumdog Millionaire .

• Martin Flood
• Michael Larson