A man involved in a lottery scam, where a fake ticket was used to claim a £2.5 million prize, has paid a significant portion of the court-ordered confiscation amount. However, over £1 million of the ill-gotten gains is still unaccounted for. Edward Putman, who was sentenced to nine years in 2019 for the fraudulent scheme, managed to settle a £939,000 confiscation bill. The scam, which also implicated Camelot insider Giles Knibbs, was exposed following Knibbs’ tragic suicide when Putman refused to share the winnings.
Crown Prosecution Service lawyers have successfully secured an additional £240,000 from the sale of a property bought with the fraudulent money, bringing the total recovered amount to £1.2 million. Despite paying £85,000 in interest as part of the legal order, around £1.25 million remains missing. Putman, now 60 years old, served less than half of his sentence and was released last year. He previously had a criminal record, including a conviction for raping a pregnant teenager in 1991.
Questions remain about the whereabouts of the remaining funds, with a friend of Knibbs questioning Putman’s actions and character. Putman and Knibbs devised the scam, with Knibbs creating a fake winning ticket that Putman submitted. The real winning ticket, purchased at a Co-op store in Worcester, was never claimed and had the numbers 6, 9, 20, 21, 31, and 34. Camelot accepted the forged ticket, missing a barcode, as authentic. Knibbs’ suicide in 2015 led to the revelation of the fraud, as he had confessed to friends about their deception.
Putman’s release from prison was facilitated by a program aimed at reducing overcrowding. The property acquired with the fraudulent money was eventually sold, but the mystery of the missing funds persists. The house, located near the M25 motorway, was damaged in a fire in 2022. Putman had purchased the property for £466,000 in cash post the lottery win. Despite attempts to develop the site into a motel in 2014, planning permission was denied by the local council.