Millionaire cough man owed £20,000, court told

A college lecturer accused of using coded coughs to help a British army major pocket top prize on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, had three children at private school and owed £20,000 (€29,500) on his credit card at the time, a court heard today.

But Tecwen Whittock told police that despite his commitments everything was “under control”.

“I don’t need to cheat to get the money,” the business studies head insisted.

“Why would I put myself in serious risk of a prison sentence when I have never done it before?” he asked one of the detectives interviewing him.

Whittock, on trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court with Royal Engineers Officer Charles Ingram and his wife Diana for allegedly tricking game show host Chris Tarrant into signing the £1m cheque, said he was “law abiding” and would never contemplate such behaviour.

“I would not do it. It would be against my morals. I am just a family man.”

The lecturer, who also denied having an affair with Mrs Ingram, said: “I know that going (on the show) trying to steal £1m would land me in jail.”

He was, he said, an “intelligent person” and knew that he would have been under the eye of cameras during much of the filming at Elstree studios, Boreham Wood, Hertfordshire.

There were also “microphones” that pick up any noise.

“It would be very stupid. I think I am much more intelligent than that,” he added.

Whittock, 53, of Heol-y-Gors, Whitchurch, Cardiff, who is head of business studies at Pontypridd College, South Wales; Ingram, 39, and his 38 year old nursery nurse wife Diana, both of High Street, Easterton, Wiltshire each deny a single charge of “procuring a valuable security by deception” on September 10, 2001.

The Crown has claimed the college lecturer, who was one of the 10 “fastest finger first contestants” while the major was in the programme’s “hot seat”, used a total of 19 strategically placed coughs to help the officer choose most of the correct answers from the four options offered after each question.