Millionaire cheat freed by judge

Published on 22/11/2003 00:00

THE Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? cheat Charles Ingram was yetserday given a two-year conditional discharge after being convicted of insurance fraud.

The 41-year-old former army major, found guilty in April of trying to con the ITV quiz show, was convicted earlier this month of two counts of deception involving insurance.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard Ingram, of Easterton, Wiltshire, had already been severely punished as he had lost out financially, owed around 400,000 and was on the brink of bankruptcy.

The court was told how Ingram had lost 30,000 when a claim he had made for a genuine burglary at their detached country home had been made void - because he had failed to tell Direct Line Insurance about previous claims he had made in the three years prior to taking out the policy in July 2001.

He was found guilty on 28 October of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception and of a second charge of deception by attempting to claim on that policy.

Defending, Selva Ramasay told the court the case was an unusual fraud because Ingram had lost out.

Ingram, his wife Diana and their three children had suffered over the last two years because of the adverse publicity over the Millionaire case and this case.

Mr Ramasay said Mr Ingram gave the profits from tabloid interviews to charity and had only made money from the Celebrity Wife Swap programme with Jade Goody to support his family.

Afterwards, Ingram said: "I would like to think of this as the first day of the rest of our lives."