Major says he treated quiz show like an army mission

An army major accused of cheating on the quiz Who Wants to be a Millionaire said he won by imagining he was on a military mission, a court heard yesterday.

Charles Ingram said the inspiration for a performance that the host Chris Tarrant described as "hard to fathom", was the Army's lack of resources. Major Ingram said: "I decided I would have to do everything I could to get to the £1m," he said in police interviews read to Southwark Crown Court. "That meant taking calculated risks, weighing up the answers, and taking account of the risks just as I'd have to do in the Army.

"You never have enough resources in the Army. You decide to limit the risks to achieve the mission. That is exactly what I did that night."

The Royal Engineers officer, who saw active service in Bosnia during his 15-year career, was interviewed several weeks after his appearance in September 2001. Major Ingram, 39, and his wife, Diana, 38, a nursery nurse, of Easterton, Wiltshire, deny charges of cheating to win the prize.

They are accused of conspiring with Tecwen Whittock, 52, of Cardiff, head of business studies at Pontypridd College, who also denies the charge. The prosecution claims Mr Whittock coughed strategically to guide Major Ingram to the correct answer.

But Major Ingram insisted to police that his "strategy" involved "taking his time" to consider the four possible answers offered on each question.

"I had seen other people on the TV not go as far as they could have done. I decided I would take limited risks and go for it, that is what I did." The court then heard him insist: "The money was secondary to trying to answer the question. I looked at each of the answers, tried as best I could to delete answers that were too ridiculous and weigh up the options on the remaining answers and if I felt 80 per cent confident, or more, on a particular answer, I would go for it."

The court was told he had been questioned specifically over his approach to the £1m poser ­ "a number one followed by a hundred zeroes is known by what name?"

With the help of his physics and maths A-levels, Major Ingram said he knew it was not megatron, gigabyte or nanomol. Although he had never heard of googol, he decided through elimination that it must be the answer.

The major said the investigation had been a "nightmare". "I fluttered on the first show as I wanted to get to the million to the best of my ability," he said, adding: "I did not cheat on that show."

The trial continues today.