Major in court accused of £1m (€1.5m) quiz show conspiracy

An Army major has appeared in a British court charged with dishonestly attempting to win £1m (€1.5m) on Britain's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.

Charles Ingram won the top prize on the TV programme last September.

He has appeared at Bow Street Magistrates Court, central London, UK, with his wife Diana Ingram and business lecturer Tecwen Whittock.

The trio are all charged with deception and conspiracy. They did not enter a plea, and spoke only to confirm their names and addresses.

District Judge Nicholas Evans told them to return to Southwark Crown Court on August 28 and gave them conditional bail.

They are charged with conspiracy to give assistance in answering questions on the quiz show between January 1 and September 11, 2001.

They were also charged with "dishonestly procuring Christopher Tarrant to sign a cheque by deception on September 10, 2001".

The major, aged 39, his nursery nurse wife, aged 38, and Whittock, aged 52, who is head of business studies at Pontypridd College in south Wales, were arrested last November on suspicion of conspiring to swindle the programme makers, Celador Productions.

The Ingrams, of The Grange, High Street, Easterton, Wiltshire, UK and Whittock of Heol-y-Gors, Whitchurch, Cardiff, Wales, were charged after answering bail in London last week.

Following his appearance on the programme, the £1m (€1.5m) prize was withheld. Ingram has strenuously denied that he cheated and has launched a civil action against the programme makers to recover the money.