A convicted rapist and fraudster who used a forged ticket to trick the National Lottery into paying out a £2.5million jackpot has today been jailed for nine years.
Edward Putman, 54, conspired with a Camelot insider to cheat the system and present a counterfeit slip to claim the outstanding top prize in 2009.
The builder hatched the plot with friend Giles Knibbs - who then worked in the securities department at the Lottery operator - with the pair submitting a deliberately damaged forgery just before the 180-day limit to stake claims expired.
But the fraud unravelled after Mr Knibbs, 38, confessed to friends that he had 'conned' the Lottery before taking his own life after an angry row about how the winnings were divided.
Jurors at St Albans Crown Court found Putman guilty of fraud by false representation today after a two-week trial.
Passing sentence, judge Philip Grey said the 'sophisticated, carefully planned, and diligently operated fraud' struck at the heart of the integrity of the National Lottery.
He said: 'You would have got away with this but quite plainly you were greedy.
'Whatever the exact monetary split you and Mr Knibbs had agreed, you did not pay him what split he felt he was owed. The two of you fell out spectacularly.
'This crime struck at the integrity of the National Lottery. You have also undermined the public's trust in the lottery itself.
'People play in order to win the lottery. It was set up to benefit the wider community. There are risks individual are less inclined to play and this may reduce the sums available.'
The judge said the fact Camelot had been 'hoodwinked in this way will, of course, be damaging to its reputation'.
Partway through the judge's remarks, Putman, wearing a Barbour-style jacket and blue jeans, said 'I can't believe what I'm hearing'.
The genuine winning ticket, which was bought in Worcester, has never been discovered.
Putman was paid the jackpot by Camelot despite the bottom part of the mangled slip missing the barcode, the trial heard.
Jurors were told the scam began to fall apart after the friendship between former business partners Knibbs and Putman deteriorated.
The court heard how Knibbs sought vengeance on his former friend because he had not given him his agreed share of the winnings from the draw on March 11, 2009.
St Albans crown court heard that before he died Knibbs told friends of his conspiracy with Putman, a builder who had worked on an extension at his home in Bricket Wood, Hertfordshire.
In June 2015 Putman had gone to the police alleging Knibbs had threatened to reveal his previous convictions for the rape of a 17-year-old girl in 1991 and a benefits fraud in 2012.
He also reported that Knibbs had stolen his mobile phone and damaged the wing mirror on his car.
As a result, Knibbs was arrested. He told a former partner John Coleyshaw: 'It looks like I am going down for 10 to 15 years for blackmail.'
Mr Coleyshaw told the jury: 'He was in a bad way because he was worried by the thought of going to prison. For want of a better word he had been shafted by someone he considered to be a good friend.'
The scam began after Knibbs saw documents being printed containing details of big wins which had not yet been claimed while working late one night.
Prosecutor James Keeley told the trial there was 'some trial and error' in producing a successful forged ticket, with several different specimens made, each with one of the 100 different possible unique codes on the bottom.
Mr Knibbs had claimed Putman went to 29 different shops as the clock ticked down to claim the cash, providing a different ticket at each, before the right number was found.
The jury of seven women and five men heard it was just 10 days before the six-month deadline for claims that the builder came forward with the ticket on August 28, 2009, which had been sold at the Co-op at St John's Road, Worcester.
It had the winning numbers: 6, 9, 20, 21, and 34. When Putman made the call to Camelot to claim the prize he said he found the ticket under the seat of his van. It was missing its bottom part, which contained unique numbers.
But Camelot, where Knibbs had worked between 2004 and 2010 in the fraud department, had been conned and verified the ticket as genuine.
When Putman of Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, collected £2,525,485, he said he wanted to remain anonymous.
Despite his multi-million pound windfall, three years later in 2012 Putman was sentenced to nine months for benefit fraud after going on to claim £13,000 in housing and income support.
His previous convictions also include the rape of a teenager in the early 1990s, for which he was sentenced to seven years.
Knibbs did receive some of the windfall from the fraud, with evidence to suggest he was initially paid £280,000 by Putman for his part in the ruse, followed by much smaller increments totalling £50,000.
Prosecutor James Keeley said that unidentified deposits totalling £83,440 were paid into Knibbs' bank accounts. He had purchased a home in Bricket Wood on June 9, 2010 for £320,000.
A mortgage of £225,499 had been obtained from Barclays. Four payments were made in May 2010 totalling £106,830.
Mr Keeley said there were also cash withdrawals from Mr Putman's account saying it was reasonable to infer that at least some of the cash credits represented the partial distribution to Knibbs from the proceeds of the fraud.
But he said Knibbs was expecting to receive several hundred thousand pounds and 'came to the conclusion that the defendant was rescinding the agreement.'
Mr Knibbs' partner Olivier Orphelin said he had been introduced to Eddie Putman and his partner Lita. He described Mr Putman as 'loud and liked to show off.' He said Lita was a 'lovely lady.'
In May and June 2015 he asked Mr Putman why they were not seeing them. He was told by Mr Knibbs it was because Mr Putman owed him a lot of money.
The police investigation was impeded by the inability of Camelot to locate the original of the forged winning ticket. It was only reopened in 2017 when the ticket was eventually located by an employee at Camelot called Henna Chohan.
In December 2016 Camelot was fined £3 million by the Gambling Commission for breaching its controls relating to databases, the way it investigated prize claims and it processes around the decision to pay a prize.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it 'will take steps to recover his fraudulently acquired winnings.'
District Crown Prosecutor Tapashi Nadarajah said: 'Edward Putman deceived the National Lottery operators with his 'winning' ticket, making him a millionaire; but his lies unravelled with the tragic death of his co-conspirator who he wasn't prepared to share the money with.
'We used accounts from Knibbs' friends, as well as documented evidence on his phone and financial transactions, to build a compelling case against Putman.
'This was further strengthened by indisputable evidence provided by an expert in the scientific examination of questioned documents.
'They found significant differences between the printing on genuine tickets and that on Putman's ticket, concluding his ticket was not genuine.'
Following the guilty verdict, defence counsel Lawrence Shelby added in personal mitigation that Putman's partner, Anita Stevens would suffer if he was incarcerated.
'Putman has been in a strong and steady relationship with Anita Stevens for over 13 years. She is estranged from her children and he does not have children.
'It is the two of them, and the two of them alone. She is older than him in her 60s. Ms Stevens is going to suffer as a result of his incarceration.'
Putman, who arrived at court with his face masked and wearing dark glasses, denied that between August 28 and September 8 2009, together with Giles Knibbs, he dishonestly made a false representation, namely produced a fraudulent National Lottery ticket, intending to make a again, namely £2,525,485 for himself.
The jury of five men and seven women found him guilty. Lawrence Selby said the fine Camelot received could have gone to good causes.
Judge Phillip Grey sentenced Edward Putman to nine years in jail, ordering a victim surcharge to be paid and a Proceeds of Crime confiscation timetable put in place.
