UK National Lottery Fraudster To Be Charged

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Sep 14, 2018

Hertfordshire police to take Edward Putman to court over GBP 2.5 million fraud perpetrated in 2009

This week saw an interesting sequel to an InfoPowa story which appeared some years back in which the UK National Lottery paid out GBP 2.5 million to Edward Putnam (53) in what is now known to have been an insider fraud case.

The Hertfordshire police announced this week that they will be taking Putnam to court on criminal fraud charges related to his fraudulent claim. Putnam has already been punished for continuing to claim social security benefits despite his big windfall.

To briefly recap: In 2009 Putnam allegedly conspired with a lottery IT employee Giles Knibbs, who had access to lottery records that enabled him to print an unclaimed winning ticket out. He then tore off the bar code and provided the ticket to Putnam to claim, along with necessary security check information such as where and when the original ticket had been purchased.

Putnam was successful in perpetrating the fraud but then it appears the conspirators fell out after Knibbs tried unsuccessfully to blackmail Putnam for a hefty chunk of the prize.

Knibbs subsequently committed suicide, but left enough unanswered questions for a police investigation to be mounted in 2015. Putnam was arrested but later released after police advised that they did not have sufficient evidence to proceed.

UK media reports this week claim that Putnam has been the subject of an investigation by Hertfordshire’s Serious Fraud and Cyber Unit since 2015, apparently leading to the present charges. He has been bailed to appear at St Albans magistrate’s court on October 16.

In a brief statement the Hertfordshire police have confirmed that Putnam has been charged “…with fraud by false representation following an alleged fraudulent claim of a lottery prize.

“The incident occurred in 2009 when a claim was made for an outstanding lottery prize. A lottery ticket was submitted and the prize of £2.5m was paid out.

“In 2015 an investigation was opened by Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Serious Fraud and Cyber Unit, after evidence came to light that the claim was not genuine.”

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