Charles Ingram - The Major Fraud Documentary 

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Fun fact: when this documentary first went out, the first advert in the ad break was for Benelyn cough syrup 😂

The fact that they actually aired the episode immediately after the documentary was just brilliant. The ratings for that one episode must have been through the roof.

The fact that 3 of the same family members played here is suspicious enough

what struck me the most was the fact that he came back the next evening with the same shirt

They were too obvious. They shoulda had a cough for A. A sneeze for B. A hiccup for C. And a massive fart for D.

I had such a hard time finishing this doc cause I was cringing so hard the whole time. There’s something about seeing people cheat that gives me unbearable second hand embarrassment lmao

Imagine being on this show and constantly saying you've never heard of something only to choose that answer.

“How old are your daughters?” “I am not familiar with my daughters, ummmm…. *wife coughs* 11, 7 and 6

The most striking thing for me is that as he eliminates the wrong answers he’s unable to evidence any of his choices with any reasoning. Absolutely bang on a cheat.

Host: Who wants to be a millionaire? Charles: Me Woman: *cough* Charles: Us

his only mistake was going for 1mln, if he stops at 500k or 250k no one will investigated his case.

Plot twist: they were not cheating but the show didn’t want to give the million dollars so they made it all up.

His biggest mistake was saying that he had no idea at the beginning of every question. He should have kept his mouth shut and made it seem like he was reasoning it out in his head. If the host asked, he should say, "I'm thinking about it," or some other excuse. Instead, he went from "I have no idea" to the right answer almost every time. He should have given vague responses like, "I know this somehow, I just need to think about it," or, "I've heard of this before but need a minute to recall." His next big mistake was listing all the possible answers out loud every time. He should have picked one or two to say, and then did process of elimination based on whether or not he heard a cough. And finally... he got greedy. If he had punched out at a lesser amount, the studio would not have been able to determine the pattern. What impresses me is that the tech genius guy doing the coughs actually knew a hell of a lot! The problem is, Major was actually a stupid person, so even with cheating to help him he could not cheat intelligently and this gave him away. If two really intelligent people did this, the studio would have no idea. In fact, I'm sure some have gotten away with it.

He keeps on saying "I don't know" to everything and then gets all the answers right? That alone smells of rotten fish.

“I do think it’s Googol, but I don’t know what a Googol is” -Charles Ingram, 2001

This is so funny because it would never work in a post-covid world. The second someone coughs now everyone is immediately suspicious

The big problem was that Charles Ingram was so dumb he needed help on every answer. If Tecwen Whittock was up there, he would have only needed help on 1 question.

Staff should've started coughing for wrong answers lol

“Haussmann is more of German name not Italian… I think it’s Berlin 😂😂 it can’t be Paris” 😂😂

I could not prevent me from burst into laugh at the "no" hidden within the cough 🤣

You can tell he is cheating, he doesn't even give any information as to why he is choosing that answer. Nobody is that lucky lol

Their names being Charles and Diana for some reason make it funnier

What's really funny is when someone starts winning, the house gets suspicious. Just like in gambling casinos. When someone hits, the casino claims an error occurred

He was exaggerating his performance and taking too long to make a choice. It was obvious

Update: After this scandal came out, he had to resign from the military. Currently, he is a "Director of Operations" for his wifes candle business and has declared bankruptcy 4 times.

'Craig David... never heard of him'... 2 minutes later 'yep, I'll go with Craig David!'

Who doesn't know that Jackie Kennedy second husband was Aristotle Onassis?

So when you watch his wife panicking and full of anxiety in the audience, now we know it was because he was pushing his luck and risking it all going to a level much further than they agreed to, not because she was scared of him losing the game.

the man sitting behind his wife laughing when she double coughs is sending me 😂😂

"A1 is the only band I've heard of here, I don't know who Craig David is. Never heard of him...I'm going Craig David. Never been more certain of anything in my life. Craig David, final answer".

-whats your name? -charles ingram? *cough* -yes, definitely. Charles ingram.

They should have coughed when the host was reading the answers out😅

This happened Sept 10, 2001. Crazy times to be alive. I bet everyone forgot about this for a while after.

Judge: “Chris Ingram, do you plead guilty or not guilty?” “Oh gosh that’s a tough one. Hmm let me think. Guilty……that doesn’t seem right. Mmm not guilty…” *cough cough* “ Yes lock in b - not guilty please”

My favorite part of this is watching the wife's increasingly exasperated reactions as he keeps making it more and more obvious. It's like she wants to scream 'Holy s**t, you idiot, what is wrong with you?!' I'm watching this with ten minutes left and I'm seeing in the comments that it reveals she did scream at him afterward. Pretty easy to see why.

LOL Tecwen slipping in that "no" after coughing reminds me of those people who try to unsuccessfully cover their fart with a cough

That million dollar question would be an entry level question now and days.

Does anyone else just periodically look up this documentary every few years and watch the whole thing as procrastination? When moving house, for example.

The coughing confirms it, but he kind of told on himself as well. He was never confident in any of his answers, he would be adamant about having never heard of something then pick it anyway, and he needed confirmation on certain questions too often running through all the answers 3-4 times. He seemingly accidentally got the answer right for the duration of the show. Insane. 🚩

I find it amazing that he hadn’t heard of the answers to many of the questions, but he STILL got them right? That would have rung alarm bells!!

The fact that he has 3 kids and still takes this risk is even more shameful

The fact the wife said to Chris "only 32.000" highlights how greedy they are.

His biggest crime was that shirt.

Seeing Wittock for the first time an hour later and close to the ending is the kind of stuff top tv dramas dream of.

i'd like to use my cough lifeline

The bigger crime here is, that he has never heared of Coldplay. That's 10 to 25 right there.

What's even more hilarious, is after they were found guilty, few years later they were then found guilty of insurance fraud 🤣

Charles: I won a million bucks! Charles to the coughing man: Here’s 10 bucks for cough medicine 😅

This is how Monty Python would have executed the same scam, this is comedy gold

My favorite part was watching the wife losing her mind in the audience, knowing that the game was up, knowing they'd pressed their luck too far and being incapable of stopping it. She's watching a train wreck in slow motion and she's on the train. 😆

He stupidly double-checked EVERY answer, causing the coughs to be far too frequent and noticeable. 🙄

They could have left with 125k but they left with nothing and a jail sentence.

It's amazing that 3 peeps in a immediate family got on the same show

I feel sorry for their kids, that must have been so embarrassing for them at school.

imagine if another person in the audience would cough! at the wrong time!😂😂😂

So I guess we are all gathered here today again, by the grace of the great algorithm. Have fun watching! P.s. his wife creeps me out

Cant believe i just spent over an hour of my life watching this But its so good

Diana facial expressions are scarier then the scam itself holy fck

A man so unknowledgeable that he didn’t know that the famous Jaqueline Kennedy became Jackie O (for Onassis) and died with that name (and the funeral was aired live worldwide), could never have gotten to $1mil on his own.

I was there live as audiance member that night. Couldnt hear the coughs to be honest. But when he won 64k the presence off security heightened and everyone noticed it. Weeks later every audience member was interviewed buy the staff and police. Should off took 250k and no questions would have been asked.

The dramatic music every time they introduce another person 😂

I haven’t watched it yet and I had completely forgotten about this. But is anybody else blown away that it was 24 years ago?!

Did anyone else cringe when his wife coughed and the guy behind her pit his head in his hands 😂😂😂

Host: Have you got a strategy? Charles: Yes, I've got one and it's called cough strategy.

I would've loved for the couples behind Diana to be interviewed. They knew what was going on most of the time and were so entertained by Diana's reactions

I love nostalgic television lol!!!! The clothes the camera quality …I miss being younger lol 😂

That last question was so easy, can't believe it's a million dollar question.

I love watching stuff like this.

If he had got to 64k or even 125k then he'd have got away with it. Sadly greed was his undoing and the further he went the less believable it was

His reaction to being told he’s been accused of being a cheat and told he won’t be allowed to cash the cheque is priceless. As if you’d respond like that 🤣

Oh the irony of Martin Bashir hosting a show about fraud.

To watch in hindsight, this is hilarious! How childish to use coughing for cheating! We did that back in 5th grade when being asked questions up front by the teacher! Hahahahaha

Fascinating stuff! I was THRILLED when Ribert Brydges won. He was our neighbour at the time and you honestly could not meet a lovelier man. Very kind and genuine.

I love how when the producers said that they weren't getting the money and there was going to be a case, they were still extremely nice to each other. Lol

The second hand embarrassment is IMMENSE

His blabbering answers were so illogical and inappropriate. It's no wonder he drew suspicion.

this was more entertaiing than anything netflix has to offer, appreciate the upload hoss.

I am from the US and i was shouting SEPTEMBER!!!! for the labor day answer. Lol

Will never forget watching this on Easter Monday evening, followed by the actual episode straight after. This documentary was so frighteningly good but ouch, the greed.

The people behind Ingram's wife knew there was something odd going on too. I'm so glad these people didn't win the money.

How ironic that Martin Bashir is the presenter for this documentary after how he lied and deceived Princess Diana. Wow!

Robin Williams would've been a good fit to play him in a movie.

What's really a pity is that he did the whole thing in autopilot mode. He had good intuition on multiple questions, but he waited every time for multiple hints, as if three coughs were absolutely necessary to choose his answer. For sure at that moment he was really willing not to loose the money he had just earned, but by his attitude he was really not thinking by himself while having this cheating system as a hint, but clearly relying entirely on it. Every answering phase looked exactly the same and this was naturally suspicious.

The person behind his wife instantly knew they were cheating when she coughed

How strange this scheme took place the day before 9/11.

Did anyone notice that the program was shot the day before the 9/11 attack?

25:37 LOL the people in the back noticed she was coughing to give him the answer and they started laughing

He’s such a greedy idiot, he could’ve just walked with 125k and got away with it do to lack of evidence and coincidental occurrences

He should have walked away at £32 000. That plus his wife's winnings is £64 000. Greed is hell of a drug that will do you in

Even the host noticed, they weren’t even careful about it 😂

He is not phone a friend. it's a cough, a friend. 😂😂 Where is Netflix when we need a movie? 😂

“Coldplay, I’ve never heard of.” 😂 Seriously?

His problem was that on the 125k and 250k questions he had the right answer in the first place and just needed confirmation of his instinct. He then thought he had the right answer on the 500k question and that's where it really starts to unravel and becomes really obvious with performing u-turns. He didn't help himself either by continually saying things like "I really don't know" and "I'm sure it's not" during the questions. If he'd just remained calm and didn't talk so much and just slowly went round the answers without talking too much he could have convincingly built up his certainty over the correct answer when it was given to him. Also on the 125k question he dismisses Van Eyk as he'd never heard of him (although you don't see that bit in this documentary) but on other questions he goes for answers BECAUSE he's never heard of them!

Following a trial at Southwark Crown Court lasting four weeks (including jury deliberation for three and a half days), Ingram, his wife and Whittock were convicted by a majority verdict of their offences on 7 April 2003. Both of the Ingrams and Whittock were given suspended prison sentences of two years [the Ingrams were sentenced to eighteen months; Whittock was sentenced to twelve months]. Each were fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 towards prosecution costs. Within two months of the verdict and sentence, the trial's judge ordered the Ingrams to pay additional defence costs, which left them repaying a total of £115,000. On 19 August 2003, the Army Board ordered Ingram to resign his commission as a major after sixteen years of service, but stated that this would not affect his pension entitlements. On 19 May 2004, the Court of Appeal denied Ingram leave to appeal against his conviction and upheld his sentence but agreed to quash his wife's fine and prosecution costs. On 5 October, the House of Lords denied Ingram leave to appeal against his fine and prosecution costs, and he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. On 20 October, the original trial judge reduced Ingram's defence costs order to £25,000 and Diana's defence costs order to £5,000. Ingram's defence costs were later further reduced to £5,000 on appeal. The couple appeared on an episode of “Wife Swap” in 2003. Three years later, the couple played on “The Weakest Link.” Since the ordeal, Charles has authored two thriller novels, “The Network” in 2006 and “Deep Siege” in 2007. In 2016, the pair were reported to be selling jewelry made by Diana on a market stall including brooches for £5 and necklaces for up to £40. In 2018, The Sun reported he was selling his £450,000 country home. Since their conviction, the Ingrams have declared bankruptcy four times.

I'm absolutely dying from secondhand embarrassment!

I'm pretty surprised he went straight for Berlin on the 14th question. I think the kind of person who (legitimately) gets that far would be like "oh, Berlin's a trap to make you think 'it's a German name, so it's a German place'" or something like that

I love how the host keeps mocking him with the "craig david" answer

In all fairness I've never seen any other contestant reading out all the answers for every question. He's guilty as hell

Part of the problem is, he usually said “I’ve got no idea” or “I’m not certain” indicating he was just taking a wild guess. I’m no statistician but GUESSES aren’t correct 100% of the time, as Charles’ were.