Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? ‘worst ‘ contestant conned family in £4.5m scam

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    A bloke who was the worst ever contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? has been jailed for six-and-a-half years for a huge £4.5million fraud scam

    Jeff Arundell, 75, who appeared on the show in 2000, was found guilty of several counts of fraud and money laundering this week, after stealing millions from his own family and friends. The most shocking find was that he used his power of attorney to take £260,000 from his own dead mother, bought a Bentley car and went on a betting spree with it.

    Arundell, of Lansdown, Bath, also invited friends to invest £100,000 in what he claimed was a guaranteed money making investment in a pharmaceutical company – and would personally guarantee their stake of the money. But in 2016, his scheme unraveled when he placed the money on spread betting and within weeks told the victims he had lost their cash and did jot have the funds to repay them as promised – but it later emerged that he did make some winnings from the bets he placed.

    READ MORE: Pervert naked from the waist down masturbated at his window 'ready for school run'

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    Avon and Somerset Police said from his winnings he continued to trade and place further bets which in turn attributed to the £4.6 million windfall he accumulated by August 2017. Dr Kirstie Cogram, manager of the serious and organised crime investigation team, said: "Arundell portrayed himself as an experienced trader in the financial markets. He seemingly thought little of defrauding his own family by taking cash from his elderly mother, nor using money from a friend and their family to bankroll his spread betting efforts. His actions were deplorable.”

    He was convicted of three counts of fraud by false representation and one of money laundering at Bristol Crown Court in relation to £86,000 of money he received from his friend and their family. He was also convicted of fraud by abuse of position in relation to his later mother's finances, and will face a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing to recoup money he gained from his crimes.

    • Pervert naked from the waist down masturbated at his window 'ready for school run'

    The crime has brought him back into the spotlight for the first time since his 2000 appearance on the hit ITV show. He answered just six questions before being kicked off the hot seat when giving an incorrect answer to the £4,000 question. He'd used two lifelines in the process and wasn't doing well – he had already used his 50/50 lifeline to find out that an anaconda was a snake, and he asked the audience to help him work out that the Roman numerals of MM meant 2000.

    His final question was about John Major's Back to Basics policy, which Arundell incorrectly called the Citizens Charter.

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