The great Lotto ‘cover-up’: Gambling watchdog redacts details on rapist’s dodgy jackpot – Mirror.co.uk

The gambling watchdog may have carried out a probe into how a rapist tricked his way to a lottery jackpot, but it seems they are not prepared to share the results with the public.

And they were accused of staging a cover-up over Edward Putmans 2.5million payout which he obtained with a dodgy ticket and alleged insider help.

Of the 270-page Gambling Commission report obtained by the Mirror, 195 are blacked out either in part or fully that is 72%. Another 79 pages have been removed from the dossier entirely.

Among the questions left unanswered were whether Camelot knew of the friendship between alleged inside man Giles Knibbs and 51-year-old Putman and what was the rapists side of the story.

Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson MP blasted the watchdog for denying the public details behind the 2009 win.

He said: It seems the Great Lotto Robbery is in danger of turning into the Great Lotto Cover-up.

Whilst the Gambling Commission have taken action against Camelot for its failure, the public will rightly want to see further action taken by authorities in order to recoup the money fraudulently taken.

To maintain public confidence in the integrity of the lottery, we need full disclosure of facts, the sequence of events and the failures to make sure something like this can never happen again. Pages of redacted evidence are not good enough.

The Gambling Commission, which had ruled it was more likely than not Putmans jackpot was paid out of a dodgy ticket, said: We believe the public interest does favour the disclosure of certain parts of the information.

There is, however, still material which remains exempt where the public interest balance favours maintaining the exemption and withholding information.

But Campaign for Freedom of Information director Maurice Frankel branded the withholding questionable.

The report did reveal alarm bells should have been ringing at Lottery HQ from the day Putman made his claim. He rang the lottery claimline bosses 10 days before the 180-day deadline.

Putman said his ticket had been damaged but had enough information about where the winning line was bought and was paid a week later.

It is feared he had the help of Camelot IT specialist Knibbs, who worked in the fraud detection department.

The Commission report said: The circumstances of the claim made it an exceptional onewhich should have caused concern.

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And it remained troubled as to why the prize was paid out in all the circumstances. If Camelots inadequate investigation been done properly, there was a real possibility the fraud would have been spotted.

The operator was fined 3million last year over the scandal.

Police looked into the alleged fraud when it came to light in 2015 and arrested Putman, of Kings Langley, Herts.

He was told four months later he would face no further action and the file has now remained closed for more than a year.

Camelot said: We accept that, at the time of the alleged incident, there were weaknesses in some of the processes we had in place to prevent a potentially fraudulent claim of the very specific kind seen in this case. And, as we said at the time, were very sorry for that.

Running The National Lottery with the utmost integrity has always been our priority.

"Having investigated the circumstances of the alleged incident and having reviewed and strengthened the systems we have in place to prevent potential fraud, we are completely confident that the alleged fraud could only have been carried out under a unique set of circumstances and would certainly not be possible today.

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The great Lotto 'cover-up': Gambling watchdog redacts details on rapist's dodgy jackpot - Mirror.co.uk