Facing jail, the rapist who forged £2.5m Lotto ticket
Faker pulled off £13,000 benefits fraud as he was spending all his illegal winnings
A BUILDER who secured a £2.5million lottery jackpot by forging the winning ticket was found guilty of fraud yesterday.
Eddie Putman, who already had convictions for rape and wounding, used his payout for a decade of luxury holidays.
But the 54-year-old will now spend the next nine years behind bars. He was convicted after a jury heard evidence from beyond the grave from his accomplice, National Lottery insider Giles Knibbs.
Knibbs, 38, sought vengeance on his former friend because he had not shared the cash. He tipped off friends about the scam before killing himself.
The jury was not told about Putman’s criminal past during the trial at St Albans Crown Court. He had been jailed for seven years for raping a pregnant 17-year-old girl in 1991. His victim said he punched her so hard she thought her head would cave in.
She successfully sued him for £50,000 and gave the money to charity.
‘I’m not envious of the money,’ she said last night. ‘I’d rather have my life than his – an infamous rapist.’
Putman was also jailed for nine months in 2012 for falsely claiming £13,000 in benefits. Astonishingly, the offence was carried out following his massive payout.
Other crimes include wounding with intent – he stabbed a neighbour who tried to stop him attacking his then partner.
Putman claimed the £2,525,485 jackpot from the draw on March 11, 2009. His co- conspirator worked at Camelot’s headquarters and had seen details of which jackpots had never been claimed.
Together they hatched a plot to trick the lottery firm by handing in a faked ticket on August 28, just before the six-month deadline.
It is unlikely that much money will be clawed back because Putman blew most of it on luxury holidays with his partner, Lita Stephens. A relative said: ‘These two have spent it all by now, or most of it. Eddie has taken her around the world – they’ve been to every exotic place you can think of.
‘But I don’t think they’ve been anywhere for a long time because the money has run out.’
Putman has a £700,000 detached house in the upmarket village of Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, where he lived with Miss Stephens, 64. He is understood to have another property nearby.
The relative added: ‘She has a big diamond ring on her finger. They have nice cars.’
Camelot paid out the money even though the bottom of the forged ticket was ripped off, meaning it lacked crucial security information including the unique reference number.
Jailing Putman, Judge Phillip Grey said: ‘With a forged winning ticket, you claimed a prize that should never have been yours. Camelot had suspicions but after a short investigation paid out.
‘I am sure you thought you had got away with it. You would have got away with but you were greedy. You did not pay Giles Knibbs what he felt he was owed and you fell out spectacularly. Mr Knibbs was distraught at your betrayal and he felt unable to admit what he had done to police.’
Knibbs worked for Camelot’s fraud detection department in Watford and told friends he was working late one night when ‘something started off the office printer’.
The document contained details of big wins that had not been claimed, including dates, times and locations where the tickets were bought.
The prosecution said there would have been ‘some trial and error’ in producing a credible forged ticket – because it needed the secret security number.
Knibbs made 100 tickets with every possible combination and Putman visited 29 shops before he ‘struck lucky’ at a retailer in High Wycombe, Bucks.
The fraud fell apart when Putman refused to hand over Knibbs’s share of the proceeds.
Knibbs killed himself in October 2015 and the ensuing police investigation revealed he had confided in friends about his crime.
In what appeared to be a ploy to bring Putman down, he sent them letters outlining the scam.
Large ‘unidentified deposits’ into Knibbs’s bank account showed he had received cash.
Camelot was fined £3million by the Gambling Commission over the incident. It said £2.5million of the penalty represented the sum that would have gone to good causes had the claim not been paid out.
No one has come forward with the genuine winning ticket.
‘Been to every exotic place in the world’