Seventeen years after their conviction for cheating on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Charles and Diana Ingram have largely retreated from the public eye. The couple, who were found guilty of conspiring to defraud the show of £1 million in 2003, now live in Bath and run a custom jewellery business. Charles Ingram remains active on social media, frequently posting about Brexit, but the scandal continues to define their lives.
The Ingrams received suspended prison sentences and never served time. However, the fallout was severe: Charles Ingram was later convicted of insurance fraud, leaving the family £400,000 in debt and unemployed. In a 2003 appearance on This Morning, Charles maintained his innocence, stating, 'We didn't cheat on that show. There was no plan to cheat on that show. I won that money perfectly honestly and fairly and squarely.'
The couple also appeared on reality television, including a 2003 episode of Wife Swap where Charles was paired with Jade Goody. The experience was fraught with tension, though Goody famously tried to give him a makeover, saying, 'If a tracksuit's good enough for David Beckham, it's good enough for you.' Diana, meanwhile, bonded with Jeff Brazier over tequila in Romford.
In recent years, the Ingrams have explored the possibility of overturning their conviction. Their lawyer, Rhona Friedman, told the Press Association that advances in cough analysis technology could prove that the coughing signals during the show did not come from Diana Ingram or their alleged accomplice, Tecwen Whittock. 'Back at the time of the trial in 2003, cough analysis wasn't a thing,' Friedman said.
The story has been revisited in the ITV drama Quiz, which aired in 2020. Executive producer Dan Winch noted that the Ingrams still speak about the case 'like it could have happened yesterday,' adding, 'It's affected their life in such a way that they have never really been able to break away from much of the impact of it.'
