Still a Major Fraud???
 

:confused:
Just laughed (and coughed) my way through the report about the Army Major who 'tried' to cheat his way to a fortune!

I guess dishonesty doesn't pay then does it?

Do any of our military colleagues over in the army know if this particularly fine example of a senior officer is still in the service? Bringing it into disrepute and all that fine stuff?
:ooh:

He obviously never hung around with the right guys...coughing is so eighties!!

PS: This is in no way intended to stereotype senior officers...the moderators would never allow that! :ok:

Cough Cough (NO!)
 

You said that ...coughing is so eighties!!

Give the guy a break .... £1,000,000 is hardly to be sneezed at!!!


:p

How on earth did such a shifty spiv ever get to Sandhurst, let alone out the other end?

And his general knowledge was pants, too.

But major a senior officer? Isn't it the last rank you get to through time alone, like Flight Lieutenant? What is the definition of a Senior Officer?

In the RAF I'd have guessed AVM and above, or perhaps Air Rank, or is it anyone with scrambled egg on their hat?

Chaps
I am not judgemental on anyone, and I believe that the evidence on the Major is circumstantional. It is known, via certain news programmes and the web that the programme showing the Majors prize winning show was Digitally enhanced in respect of sound for the so called collaberators microphone. What we saw tonight was disgarcful. If I was a Jurer(sp?) watching this video I would say guilty. However this is NOT what the audience heard. If it was really as loud as we heard tonight then why where there only four audience participants in the prosecution? What did the other 200 hear?? (answer- just like Chris Tarrant said in court - NOTHING!). All the other participants in the side line were wearing mikes that were apparently all being individually recorded. Nobody but the producers could hear what they were saying> Except for the mike on the 'acomplice'! you could even hear him breath, had the other 8 stopped breathing for the duration of the programme?? I spoke on a live chat show tonight on this subject and asked if he could digitally enhance and 'shift' any sound from any contestant and he said ' it would be a piece of P@@s' Do not jump down the majors throat to soon guys, I do not belong to the fraternity of conspiracy theorists, but i do smell a rat here on the part of the TV station. Good luck with the appeal Major!

Jacko,

More than 25 years have passed since I left the military, but as I recall, Squadron Leaders/ Majors/Lt. Commanders and above, were 'senior' Officers. Air Commodores and above = 'Air' rank.

Saw the 'documentary' here in Australia last night, how can they show it if there is an appeal in process?

It was obviously a very heavily editied version of events and left me unconvinced.

The Coughing Major
 

Watched the programme. All three were 'at it', particularly his wife. Guilty as hell. No doubt he will get the boot from the Army and it serves him right. I doubt many of his colleagues will mourne his departure.

Guilty as charged IMHO - the 'missus was a complete give-away.

Never once did he show any sign of taking what he'd won, even when he clearly didn't have a "scooby" of the answer to the next question.

The way he talked himself around to the correct answer indicated by the coughs, when he'd already said he didn't have a clue (as in the case of Craig David, whom he'd already admitted he'd never heard of!!) was laughable.

All the time I was watching him I couldn't help thinking "how did such a bumbling f**kwit ever get past Sandhurst, let alone make it to the rank he holds"

Think Tarrant had it about right when he said Ingram reminded him of "Tim, nice but dim" of Harry Enfield fame.

Has he been dismissed in disgrace from the service yet - if not, then why? The man has brought shame upon the Queens Commission and, aside from that, seems a complete waste of rations in any case

Don't know what you all mean, I thought he gave a fine example of good old British phlegm :D :D

I don't understand the fuss!
 

The English legal system is a complete farce in this day and age, perhaps always too.

Look at Lee Clegg in Ulster, Tony Martin in Norfolk..... there are countless cases of crap decisions made by courts who are swayed by judges' directions and the circumstantial evidence presented to them.

This should never have gone to court. Who actually lost out here? A load of rich sponsors who could have got stung; boo hoo!

Since when has it been illegal to cheat in a competition? Morally dishonest maybe, but ILLEGAL???

And the Major has been accused of Greed? What are the thousands, maybe millions who call into that tawdry show: doing it for charity??:mad:

What a waste of taxpayers money. You couldn't make it up!

While we the TV audience needed the coughs enhancing from the overall soundtrack, he probably didn't. The cougher was less than 10 ft away from him.

Jacko,

Officers when travelling are given the following catagories:

A Officers (Plt Off/Fg Off/Flt Lt)
S Senior Officers (Sqn Ldr/Wg Cdr)
X Group Captain's
Y One Star and above

The evidence couldn’t be more convincing! And then, just to top it off, there was that phone call at the end when the guy from the TV company phoned the Major to tell him that the cheque had been stopped because of ‘abnormalities’ (I forget the exact phrase used). The Majors reply was ridiculous. Something along the lines of “Well obviously I’m innocent, but thanks for letting me know” Come on. You’ve gone on TV, legitimately won 1 MILLION pounds, and someone phones you to tell you that the cheque has been stopped because of abnormalities. I think you’d be saying something more along the lines of WHAT THE FCUK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT… Not Thanks for letting me know!

Just my oppinion!

What are you talking about, Training Risky? The Tony Martin jurors were certainly not "swayed by judges' directions and the circumstantial evidence presented to them"; he was guilty as charged. Tony Martin has been wrongly portrayed in certain parts of the media as a champion for the average white englishman by defending his home and castle, when he is in fact a few sandwiches short and is not the sort of person you want to have firearms; even on his own property. He is also going to be an enormous burden on the taxpayer when he returns to his hovel in a few months, demanding round-the-clock police protection. Maj Ingram and his cohorts might be idiots (and they should have gone to prison IMHO), but they are not killers, like Tony Martin.

Interesting. Here on PPRuNe we have dozens of threads slating the media for the way they misrepresent facts and mis quote people thus changing their story etc. etc. particularly on this forum.

How come so many of you are lining up to hang him? "Guilty as Hell", "Totally convinced", and the real classic, "The evidence couldn't be more convincing"!!! What bollocks! The TV company have put together a heavily edited version of events to support their side of the story and so many of you have swallowed it hook line and sinker, exactly as they intended you should, unbelievable!

What you saw was their version of events, nothing more, produced with all the editing talent that they have available to them, surely if you accept it then it should only be with considerable reservation?

Training Risky

Major Scumbucket clearly didn't have the brains or knowledge to win £1 million on his own so he cheated. It's the equivalent of not having the cash to pay for something so you and a mate nick it.

It wasn't 'rich sponsors' who were defrauded but the millions of people who try to get on the show, the prize money comes from the charges for the initial phone call they make.

GK,

I don't consider I've been "taken in"....background info posted by DouglasDigby must indicate that the man is far from honest (ok, we've all fiddled insurance claims and expenses a bit at some point in our lives, but most of us not on this scale I would
suggest).

Surely they couldn't have edited in the guy in the FFF line-up who refused to clap as the £1m was won.

To pick up on Wub's point, I read that Ingram had spent £2k (:eek: ) on the phone line trying to get on the Programme.

Wycombe
 

Yes, if the other stories of dishonesty are true then he is definitely a crook. My only point really is that the whole programme was intended to reinforce the claim of cheating, yet we all know how much we complain about the way the media can change things through editing and thus change and influence a story when it suits them.

I wasn't convinced by the programme simply because it had been edited and wasn't an untouched, unabridged original version so, in my opinion, the outcome was inevitable.

Well said Sprucey!

Using Tony Martin as an example of British justice is bizarre. He shot a defenceless boy in the back, and was jailed.

What an injustice.....

Crikey Jacko - we agree on something at last!

wub makes a good point - the major was clearly not the sharpest, so either he's the luckiest man alive, or he cheated.

G.Khan: however much Celador used clever editing to make them look as guilty as possible, they were clearly up to something; and the "[cough] NOOOOOOO" recording was a wee bit damning!

And if there was any doubt at all, as Grob Driver says - when they rang to say there were "irregularities" and that the cheque was being witheld, Ingram says "I refute that", even though there's been no direct accusation that he has cheated.

Bang to rites, guv!:p