Lotto Winner Who Conspired With Camelot Staffer To Claim £2.5 Million Jailed For 9 Years

December 5, 2019October 13, 2021 Doris Jensen

A conspiracy involving a Camelot personnel and a fraudster who won a jackpot worth £2.5 million did not end well, with the latter being sentenced to 9 years in jail. 54-year-old Edward Putman was indicted of fraud as he reportedly used a counterfeit ticket to claim the prize a decade ago.

Lotto Winner Jailed 9 Years For Working With Camelot Staffer To Claim £2.5 Million

Putman, who had previously been pronounced guilty of rape, schemed with his pal employed in Camelot at the security department from 2004 to 2010. A photo of the counterfeit ticket that was used to illegally claim the jackpot has been released by the officials. The authentic ticket that was purchased in Worcester has not been found yet. Putman was sentenced for using a counterfeit lottery ticket to claim the jackpot after a trial that lasted a fortnight.

The judge, Philip Grey commented that the elaborate fraud dealt a severe blow to the integrity of the lottery industry in the country when sentencing Putman. Putman was told that he could have gotten away with the said crime if not for his greed and that he diminished the trust of the populace towards the lottery with what he did. Grey also said that Camelot being bamboozled in this manner will blemish its reputation.

Putman had also been charged with crimes involving benefit fraud and rape prior to this. Camelot apparently gave Putman the jackpot prize even though the fraudulent ticket did not have a bar code. His submission of the ticket to claim the prize was done back in September of 2009. Putman’s accomplice, Mr Knibbs was dissatisfied with the share that Putman gave to him from the jackpot prize pool, leading to a squabble between the two. The latter committed suicide after being arrested for various crimes later that year.

The two of them had schemed together and used an intentionally mangled ticket right before the deadline to lay claim to the prize arrived. Things took a turn for the worse as Mr Knibbs became more and more volatile and leaked out information about the crime to uninvolved parties. The pair got into a fight in 2015, which ended in Putman’s phone being stolen. Mr Knibbs was then arrested after Putman went to the cops. The former then committed suicide as he was afraid of the sentence he could potentially be given.

There was proof suggesting that Mr Knibbs was given £280,000 by Putman at first, with increments amounting to £50,000 later. The trial was informed by the prosecutor that trial and error was involved in the forgery of the ticket. Multiple samples were made with various codes at the bottom of the ticket. Putman uses various tickets at multiple shops to find the correct number to claim the prize and eventually the correct code submission was made on the 28th of August, 2009.

Putman was charged with benefit fraud in 2012 for claiming £13,000 in income and housing support. He was previously charged with raping a teenager back in the early 1990s and was jailed for seven years. Camelot was fined £3 million in 2016 for violating its operating license by the Gambling Commission. Putman was seemingly undisturbed by his sentence after being found guilty. Evidence from Mr Knibb’s phone and transactions was used against Putman in his case. A document expert also found noticeable differences between the forged ticket Putman use and the genuine ones.

The prosecutor said that while Putman was able to delude Camelot with his forged ticket, the death of his accomplice was the cause of his downfall.

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Doris Jensen

Doris is a professional casino blog author that writes about everything about the online casino industry.