Convicted rapist who scammed the National Lottery out of £2.5million with a forged ticket ‘could now be stripped of his £700,000 home’
- Edward Putman was jailed for nine years in 2019 for using the forged ticket
- He could now lose his home in Hertfordshire as authorities recoup the money
A convicted rapist who forged a £2.5million Lotto ticket could have his home taken away from him after he refused to give back the cash.
Edward Putman is still yet to pay back the money he owes after being jailed for nine years for his role in the multi-million fraud in 2019.
The 57-year-old crafted the scheme with a National Lottery employee, but was caught after his co-conspirator took his own life.
Putman was ordered by the court to pay back more than £900,000, but has refused to do so, leaving authorities frustrated in their bid to recoup the money.
However, prosecutors have now been given the power to go through his possessions and could be allowed to sell them – including his £700,000 Hertfordshire home, the Mirror reports.
Edward Putman, pictured here in his police mugshot, was jailed for nine years for defrauding the National Lottery in 2019
The convicted sex offender forged a Lotto ticket to claim a £2.5million jackpot with an employee at Camelot
Putman, who was jailed for seven years in 1993 for raping a 17-year-old pregnant girl, had been threatened with an additional six years in prison by the authorities for his refusal to cooperate and only paying back less than £100,000.
READ MORE HERE: National Lottery conman who cashed in fake £2.5million winning ticket is blamed for driving his accomplice to suicide
However, now they won’t need his help after being given an enforcement receiver order at St Albans Crown Court, meaning prosecutors can ‘take possession of assets, sell them and pay money to the courts’.
This means they could take control of his house and land in Kings Langley, where he had planned to build a hotel.
The house, close to the M25, currently stands in a scruffy, unkempt state with curtains drawn shut and the land resembles a vehicle graveyard with at least twenty cars and vans parked up alongside caravans and mobile homes.
A source told the publication: ‘Putman had the chance to settle up but he’s too greedy – now it’s out of his hands.
‘The authorities are desperate to get the cash back, they won’t stand by and let him squirrel away the cash.
‘Putman played the coward and tried to fight the application but prosecutors won.’
The sex offender undertook the scam in 2009 alongside Giles Knibbs, an employee of Camelot, which runs the National Lottery.
He now faces losing his £700,000 property in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, after the court gave prosecutors special powers to recoup the money
Putman, pictured, allegedly lived a jet set lifestyle after claiming the money, flying all over the world and buying multiple properties
He received millions after Knibbs, who worked in the company’s fraud detection unit, made a fake ticket.
Putman then submitted this and it was accepted despite missing the bottom half and having no barcode.
The former bricklayer told Camelot he had found the ticket under the seat of his van, and claimed it days before the six-month time limit.
After this Putman was jailed for three months in 2012 after he was found fraudulently claiming £13,000 in benefits despite the lottery win.
He and his partner allegedly lived a jet set lifestyle, flying all over the world and buying multiple properties.
Putman was found out after co-conspirator Giles Knibbs (pictured) took his own life
But his relationship with Knibbs deteriorated after his co-conspirator began to feel he had not received his fair share of the £2.5million prize.
The Camelot worker went on to confess what he had done to loved ones, before killing himself in 2015.
After his suicide police found notes detailing the fraud, and an investigation was opened, but it was closed when Camelot was unable to locate the alleged forgery.
It was then opened again in 2017 when the ticket was finally located by a Camelot employee, and he was charged in 2019.
He was found guilty by jury and sentenced to nine years in prison.
Passing sentence at the time, Judge Grey said the ‘sophisticated, carefully planned, and diligently operated fraud’ struck at the heart of the integrity of the National Lottery.
He said: ‘You would have got away with this but quite plainly you were greedy.
‘Whatever the exact monetary split you and Mr Knibbs had agreed, you did not pay him what split he felt he was owed. The two of you fell out spectacularly.
‘This crime struck at the integrity of the National Lottery. You have also undermined the public’s trust in the Lottery itself.’
Source: Read Full Article
