Convicted rapist who forged £2,500,000 lottery ticket set for early release

'They've never got to the bottom of what he did with the money. It's horrific.'

A rapist who swindled £2.5 million with a fake lottery ticket has been given an early release.

Eddie Putman, 58, served less than half of a nine-year prison sentence for faking a winning lottery ticket.

He was helped by Giles Knibbs, who killed himself in 2019 after Putman duped him out of his share of the winnings.

It is still not known what Putman did with the winning money.

A friend of Mr Knibbs’s family: ‘Giles is gone and Putman is free – how is that fair? Giles was exploited and took his own life.

‘Now Putman has been freed and has the rest of his life ahead of him.

‘They’ve never got to the bottom of what he did with the money. It’s horrific.’

Putman was ordered to pay £939,000 in 2019 and had has his house seized.

He was previously jailed in seven years for raping a pregnant 17-year-old in 1991.

He later met Mr Knibbs when doing building work at his family home, where they spoke of property development and began working on deals.

They soon plotted to steal £2.5 million in 2009 – which has still never been claimed.

The actual winning ticket – with the numbers 6, 9, 20, 21, 31 and 34 – was purchased from a Co-op store in Worcester.

Putman came forward as the winner, and claimed he found the ticket under the seat of his van.

But it was missing its bottom part, which contained the unique numbers.

Camelot accepted the ticket as authentic even though it was missing a barcode.

But he was unmasked in 2012 after he fraudulently claimed £13,000 in housing and income support – and was jailed for nine months.

In Mr Knibbs took his own life, who confessed to friends he and Putman had ‘conned’ the lottery.

The pair had argued how the money was to be divided up, with Putman continuing to spend the winnings after Mr Knibbs’s death.

This includes flying out friends to Egypt for a holiday, doling out £500 wads of cash and buying expensive cars.

Judge Phillip Grey said the fraud struck at the heart of the National Lottery.

The judge told him: ‘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.’

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘Offenders released on licence are kept under close supervision and subject to strict conditions for the remainder of their sentence. They face recall to prison if they breach them.’

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