{"id":116557,"date":"2019-10-07T10:31:02","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T17:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=116557"},"modified":"2021-07-09T10:20:08","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T17:20:08","slug":"uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Lottery Scammer Edward Putman Imprisoned for Nine Years for Forging \u00a32.5 Million Ticket"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fraudster who claimed a \u00a32.5 million ($3 million) prize with a fake lottery ticket a decade ago was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison by a judge in Hertfordshire, UK. Edward Putman<\/a>, 54, was found to have conspired with an insider, Giles Knibbs, who worked for the UK National Lottery provider, Camelot. Knibbs committed suicide in 2015.<\/p>\n

\"Edward
Edward Putman, dubbed \u201cthe Lotto Rapist\u201d by UK tabloids, forged his \u201cwinning\u201d ticket with the help of inside man Giles Knibbs, who later killed himself. (Image: Press Association)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to The Guardian<\/em>, Putman, who has previous prison convictions for rape and welfare fraud, showed no emotion when jurors found him guilty of fraud by false representation on Friday after a trial lasting two weeks.<\/p>\n

\n

Previously, the court had heard that Putman and Knibbs had concocted a scheme to con the lottery after Knibbs had got his hands on a document containing details of wins that had not been claimed, with serial numbers partially blacked out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

According to prosecutors, Knibbs then set about creating 100 fake tickets, each with one of 100 different possible unique codes.<\/p>\n

In April 2009, as the deadline to claim the money ticked down, Putman went from store to store, presenting a different ticket in each, until he found a match.<\/p>\n

The prize was awarded after the ticket was accepted as authentic, despite having been deliberately damaged and missing a barcode.<\/p>\n

Blackmail and Suicide<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cWe used accounts from Knibbs\u2019s friends, as well as documented evidence on his phone and financial transactions, to build a compelling case against Putman,\u201d crown prosecutor Tapashi Nadarajah said. \u201cThis was further strengthened by indisputable evidence provided by an expert in the scientific examination of questioned documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey found significant differences between the printing on genuine tickets and that on Putman\u2019s ticket, concluding his ticket was not genuine,\u201d he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But things began to unravel after the two men fell out over money. Knibbs reportedly told friends he had not received his \u00a31 million share from Putman. Evidence suggested Knibbs was paid no more than \u00a3480,000 ($590,000) in total.<\/p>\n

The scheme would probably have remained uncovered had Knibbs\u2019 behavior not become increasingly erratic. He began revealing details of the plot to friends and, in June 2015, broke into Putman\u2019s house, stealing his phone and breaking the wing mirrors on his car.<\/p>\n

Lost and Found<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Putman complained to police and Knibbs was arrested for burglary, blackmail, and criminal damage. Believing the fraud would be revealed and that he would go to prison, the lottery worker took his own life days before he was due to appear in court.<\/p>\n

An anonymous whistleblower subsequently informed police that the win had not been genuine, but police were unable to build a case against Putman because Camelot had lost<\/a> the fraudulent ticket.<\/p>\n

Putman was charged in September 2018 after the ticket resurfaced and experts determined it to be a forgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the exact monetary split you and Mr Knibbs had agreed, you did not pay him what split he felt he was owed,\u201d said the judge while passing sentence. \u201cThe two of you fell out spectacularly. This crime struck at the integrity of the National Lottery. You have also undermined the public\u2019s trust in the lottery itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would have got away with this,\u201d he added, \u201cbut quite plainly you were greedy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fraudster who claimed a \u00a32.5 million ($3 million) prize with a fake lottery ticket a decade ago was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison by a judge in Hertfordshire, UK. Edward Putman, 54, was found to have conspired with an insider, Giles Knibbs, who worked for the UK National Lottery provider, Camelot. Knibbs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":116558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13699],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUK Lottery Fraudster Edward Putman Imprisoned for Nine Years<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Edward Putman conspired with Camelot worker Giles Knibbs to defraud the UK national lottery of \u00a32.5 million. Knibbs later committed suicide.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UK Lottery Fraudster Edward Putman Imprisoned for Nine Years\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Edward Putman conspired with Camelot worker Giles Knibbs to defraud the UK national lottery of \u00a32.5 million. Knibbs later committed suicide.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-07T17:31:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-09T17:20:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/putman.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/\",\"name\":\"UK Lottery Fraudster Edward Putman Imprisoned for Nine Years\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/putman.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-07T17:31:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-09T17:20:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Edward Putman conspired with Camelot worker Giles Knibbs to defraud the UK national lottery of \u00a32.5 million. Knibbs later committed suicide.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/putman.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/putman.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Edward Putman, dubbed \u201cthe Lotto Rapist\u201d by UK tabloids, forged his \u201cwinning\u201d ticket with the help of inside man Giles Knibbs, who later killed himself. (Image: Press Association)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UK Lottery Scammer Edward Putman Imprisoned for Nine Years for Forging \u00a32.5 Million Ticket\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UK Lottery Fraudster Edward Putman Imprisoned for Nine Years","description":"Edward Putman conspired with Camelot worker Giles Knibbs to defraud the UK national lottery of \u00a32.5 million. Knibbs later committed suicide.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UK Lottery Fraudster Edward Putman Imprisoned for Nine Years","og_description":"Edward Putman conspired with Camelot worker Giles Knibbs to defraud the UK national lottery of \u00a32.5 million. Knibbs later committed suicide.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2019-10-07T17:31:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-07-09T17:20:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/putman.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/","name":"UK Lottery Fraudster Edward Putman Imprisoned for Nine Years","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/putman.jpg","datePublished":"2019-10-07T17:31:02+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-09T17:20:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Edward Putman conspired with Camelot worker Giles Knibbs to defraud the UK national lottery of \u00a32.5 million. Knibbs later committed suicide.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/putman.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/putman.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Edward Putman, dubbed \u201cthe Lotto Rapist\u201d by UK tabloids, forged his \u201cwinning\u201d ticket with the help of inside man Giles Knibbs, who later killed himself. (Image: Press Association)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-lottery-fraudster-edward-putman-imprisoned-for-nine-years\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UK Lottery Scammer Edward Putman Imprisoned for Nine Years for Forging \u00a32.5 Million Ticket"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}