Conman’s house seized

Plans have been submitted to demolish a house belonging to convicted rapist and lottery fraudster Edward Putman.

an attempt to recover some of the ￡2.5m ($3.27m) jackpot fraudulently obtained by Putman

The house was put up for auction under the Proceeds of Crime Act in October 2023, in an attempt to recover some of the ￡2.5m ($3.27m) jackpot fraudulently obtained by Putman. The former bricklayer and his accomplice, Giles Knibbs, successfully forged a fake lottery ticket in 2009, before the latter’s suicide caused the fraud to unravel.

Now, a proposal on the Three Rivers District Council planning portal is awaiting approval to demolish all of the buildings on the one-acre site in Kings Langley, which Putman had planned to turn into a hotel. A 2,000 square metre furniture and retail workshop would instead be built in its place.

How fraudsters scooped jackpot

Putman was jailed in 2019 after using a fraudulent lottery ticket to claim the huge jackpot in 2009.

Putman claimed he had found the badly-damaged ticket in his van days before the deadline to claim the win had passed, but in reality he was assisted by Knibbs, who worked for lottery operator Camelot.

Knibbs had seen a document at Camelot of significant wins which had not been claimed, which allowed the pair to target an unclaimed ticket purchased in Worcestershire in March 2009.

A hundred copies of the winning ticket were produced, each with a different possible security number. After taking each ticket to different shops, Putman finally got the match on his 29th attempt.

Despite the suspicious behaviour, Camelot paid out the jackpot to Putman

Putman then deliberately tore off the barcode before reporting his win. When questioned by Camelot, he claimed he had “a habit” of tearing off pieces of paper to write down phone numbers. Despite the suspicious behaviour, Camelot paid out the jackpot to Putman.

However, the fraud would later come to light when Knibbs took his own life after a dispute between the pair over how the proceeds should be divided. Knibbs admitted the crime to family members, and Putman was brought to justice.

Putman’s darker past

After Putman was convicted, restrictions were lifted which also allowed the press to report that he had a prior conviction for raping a pregnant 17 year-old girl in 1991, for which he had served seven years in prison.

He was released early from prison earlier this year after serving just half of his nine-year jail term, in a move which was controversial in the UK.

He had been threatened with a further six years in prison if he failed to pay a ￡939,000 ($1.23m) confiscation order, which resulted in his property being seized by prosecutors.

The property was damaged by fire in 2022, although the site was still highly valuable, resulting in considerable interest when it was eventually auctioned off for ￡1.2m ($1.57m).

Police had suspected an arson attack on the site, but after all lines of enquiry were exhausted, the investigation was closed without any arrests being made.