Cheating Ingram convicted of fraud

Quiz show conman Charles Ingram was today convicted of insurance fraud. The former Army major was found guilty on two counts of deception by a jury at Bournemouth Crown Court. The 40-year-old was cleared of a further five charges.

Ingram, who was convicted in April of trying to con £1million from the Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? show, had denied the insurance fraud charges, which are unrelated to the TV programme.

In court today five not guilty verdicts were announced. But then the jury foreman announced guilty verdicts for the final two charges. The judge adjourned the case for sentencing until 21 November. Ingram, of High Street, Easterton, Wiltshire, was released on conditional bail until then.

He was found guilty of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception against Direct Line Insurance by falsely representing that he had made no insurance claims in the three years prior to taking out a policy in July 2001. He was also found guilty of making a claim on the falsely obtained policy for £30,000 for a burglary at his home in August 2001.

He was cleared of a charge of deception by obtaining an insurance policy with Zurich Municipal by failing to declare claims in the preceding three years. He was also cleared of four charges of making claims on this policy totalling £2,000.

Defence barrister Selva Ramasamy said Ingram had suffered enough and was now on medication for anxiety and depression. He said due to the Millionaire case, the ex-major was £400,000 in debt and had no job. And Ingram would be "subjected to further inflammatory reports" over the case. He asked for psychiatric reports on Ingram before sentencing.

After the hearing, a spokesman for Wiltshire Police said the offences occurred before the recording of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire? show in which Ingram appeared. A spokeswoman for Zurich Municipal said: "This is a victory for the insurance industry and honest policy holders."