The army major, a recurring cough and the £1m quiz prize now in dispute

An army major cheated the television quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire out of its £1m top prize by plotting with another contestant who helped him to get the right answers by coughing at strategic times, a court was told yesterday.

Charles Ingram, 39, gave the right answers to a series of questions that took his prize money from £8,000 to £1m. But on six of those, he was helped out by a sequence of 19 coughs by Tecwen Whittock, who was among 10 other hopefuls waiting to appear on the show, the prosecution alleged. On each occasion, Mr Whittock coughed to indicate which was the correct answer, while Major Ingram ruminated aloud.

After he had won the £1m prize – becoming only the third person to do so – and was embraced by the host Chris Tarrant, declaring he was "the most amazing contestant we've had'', the programme makers became suspicious. The payout was suspended and the programme was never broadcast.

The accused, a major in the Royal Engineers, and his wife, Diana, 38, of Easterton, Wiltshire, and Mr Whittock, 52, of Cardiff, head of business studies at Pontypridd College, deny two charges of conspiracy and deceiving Tarrant into signing the £1m cheque.

Opening the case for the prosecution Christopher Hilliard, said that with £1m on offer "someone, somewhere might have thought it would be possible to get their hands on it by cheating. This is what the prosecution say happened."

He explained to the jury that Major Ingram, his wife and her two brothers had taken a close interest in the show. Mrs Ingram and her brother, Adrian Pollock, had each won £32,000 on earlier occasions. Mr Pollock once made 1,700 calls to the premium telephone line where contestants are selected by answering a question. The siblings had written a book on the programme, including advice from her husband on how to become a contestant. It has never been published.

In September 2001, Major Ingram qualified through the telephone line stage and was invited with his wife to filming at Elstree Studios on Sunday, 9 September, where he would form part of a 10-strong panel. The panel provides contestants for the "hot seat'', who are chosen by the speed with which they answer a question, known as the "fastest finger first'' round.

The jurors were shown a recording of the show. Major Ingram is seen being the fastest to put together the name of the Agatha Christie book Death On The Nile. The major tells Tarrant he wants to do as well as his wife and brother and buy a pony for his three daughters. "I'll be happy to walk away with anything."

Major Ingram is then seen correctly answering five questions to reach £1,000 prize money. He then has to ask the audience for help on a question about Coronation Street – which he says he has never seen – and "phones a friend'' to locate the river Foyle in Northern Ireland, thereby using up two of his "lifelines'' allowed under the quiz rules. At this point, the recording stops for the day but only after the audience is given the name of those who will form the fastest finger first panel the next day. Mr Whittock is among them.

When recording resumes the next evening, with Mr Whittock in the panel behind him, Major Ingram tells Tarrant he "has a strategy''. He adds: "I was a bit defensive. This time I'm going to counter-attack.''

The film then shows him answering the next eight questions, which take him from £8,000 prize money up to £1m. On the eighth question, for £8,000, when he is asked who was the second husband of Jacqueline Kennedy, a distinct cough is audible when he speculates it might have been Aristotle Onassis and he eventually settles on that answer after a second cough and telling Tarrant he has a "sub-strategy'' to take his time.

No coughs are apparent when he gets the next question, on the country of origin of Emmental cheese correct. On the next question, for £32,000, after some indecision he uses up his third lifeline, which reduces his four possible answers to two. He then plumps for the wrong answer but quickly changes it to the right one.

Mr Hilliard told the jury it was accepted that he had changed his mind after hearing an audible gasp from the audience at his first choice. There was no cough apparent.

For the next five questions there are distinctly audible coughs heard on the soundtrack, which come when Major Ingram is musing aloud on the possible answers. On two occasions, he appears to change his mind totally.

"It was clear from the film and the audio track that Mr Ingram was being assisted by the cough," said Mr Hilliard.

There are at least six coughs on the final £1m question when the major is debating at length whether a googol is the name given to the number one when it is followed by 100 zeros.

The Crown claims the coughing originated from Mr Whittock. During rehearsals on the Monday, said Mr Hilliard, there was no sign that the couple had acknowledged or spoken to Mr Whittock and they appear to have acted as though they had never met. Yet telephone records showed a large number of calls between Mr Whittock's home and mobile telephone and those of the Ingrams in the month before the programme and on Sunday night and Monday morning of the programme recording.

Additionally, Mr Hilliard said, technical staff on the programme traced the cough as coming from one of a series of microphones on a bank of five seats in which Mr Whittock was sitting. Two members of that panel noticed his coughing at crucial times and it apparently stopped once Major Ingram had won. Mr Whittock did not cough when his turn in the hot seat came and he told programme makers the cough, which he had earlier mentioned to them, had cleared up. He won £1,000. The trial continues.

Questions, answers, and fits of spluttering

Question 11 (for £64,000).

Question: Gentlemen versus players was the annual match between amateurs and professionals in which sport?

Possible Answers: Lawn Tennis, Polo, Cricket, Rugby.

Major Ingram: It could be any one of them. I think it's cricket (coughing). It makes me think of cigarette cards ... I'm not sure ... I think it might be cricket. Could be lawn tennis. It's least likely to be rugby union ... I'll take cricket (cough). Oh God (cough). It's cricket. I'll go for cricket.

Question 15 (for £1m)

Question: A number one, followed by 100 zeroes is known as a ...?

Possible Answers: Googol, Gigabit, Nanomole, Megatron.

Major Ingram: I think it's a nanomole .... could be a gigabit ... I'm not sure ... I don't think it's a megatron. I don't think I have heard anything about a googol (coughing). (There follows repeated musing from Major Ingram.) By process of elimination I think it's a googol (cough). Don't think it's a megatron, I don't think it could be a nanomole ... I do think it's a googol (cough). It must be a googol but I don't know what a googol is ... I'm sure it's a googol (coughing). It's a googol. Yes. I'm going to go with it, it's a googol (cough). Yes I'll go with it.