UK man convicted of lottery fraud

Edward Putnam didn’t win £2.5 million in the UK National Lottery, his friend Giles Knibbs is dead, and now Putnam is likely heading to prison. Putnam’s story of an ill-gotten lottery fortune will join the ranks of lottery frauds that have destroyed lives and generally added to the mystique of quick, and illegal, fortunes.
Putnam’s lottery odyssey starts back in 2009 when he, according to court documents, conspired with his friend and lottery employee Knibbs to create a fake, winning lottery ticket. Knibbs helped provided Putnam with a fake lottery ticket that contained the winning numbers, but no bar code, from an unclaimed winning ticket. Knibbs also provided insider information so that Putnam could tell authorities where the real winning ticket was purchased.
The plan would have worked had Knibbs not suffered a last minute bout of remorse that led him to confess the scheme to other friends. Shortly thereafter he killed himself and the lottery plan was revealed to authorities who immediately arrested Putnam. Its also been noted that Putnam and Knibbs quarreled over their individual shares of the lottery payout.
Last week a jury found Putnam, who also carries a felony conviction for rape, guilty of fraud by false representation after a two week trial. He’ll be sentenced later this month.
Camelot, the operator behind the National Lottery, also felt some repercussions from the scheme. In 2016 the company was hit with a £3 million fine because of lapses in its procedures for accepting damaged tickets like the one Putnam presented.
The real winner of that particular draw never stepped forward.