THREE people who tried to defraud the television quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? out of its £1 million top prize were yesterday found guilty of deception.

Major Charles Ingram and his wife, Diana, were sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years. Each was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 costs.

Their accomplice, Tecwen Whittock, whose 19 strategic coughs steered the Royal Engineers major to a jackpot win on the programme, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, also suspended for two years, fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £7,500 costs.

It took the jury of eight men and three women at Southwark Crown Court 14 hours to reach their majority verdict in a hearing that attracted widespread attention.

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin, QC, told the trio to thank their lucky stars that they were receiving suspended sentences. The two men’s careers, he said, were now in tatters, and all three would have to endure the humiliation of being branded as cheats.

That humiliation began the moment the three left court. A large crowd gathered around the court steps started a chorus of coughing, punctuated with shouts of “cheat”.

Chris Tarrant, the show’s quizmaster, said in a statement after the verdict that the three had concocted “a very cynical plan, motivated by sheer greed”, which was an insult to the hundreds of honest contestants who had won a total of £35 million since the show was launched in 1998.

Although Ingram’s appearance was not broadcast at the time, the show’s producers, Celador, are making a 90- minute documentary on his performance. Ingram’s hesitations and changes of mind, his wife’s desperate eye-rolling and Whittock’s irritable throat will be shown in full on ITV later this month.

The three accused sat impassively as the judge passed sentence. But their blank faces concealed huge disappointment; the Ingrams had hired a public relations company to capitalise on their fame had they been cleared.

The judge told the Ingrams: “I am not at all sure that it was sheer greed that motivated this offence. I am sure all three of you were besotted with quiz programmes and the ambition to be successful on a major television show. It was this that caused you to wonder whether you could beat and cheat the system, an idea that so intrigued you that you were overcome by it.”

The judge said that the offence demanded a custodial sentence, but he expressed concern that the Ingrams’ three young daughters, two of whom have learning difficulties, should not see their parents jailed.

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