CHEATING Devizes Army major Charles Ingram pulled in one of the highest TV audience viewing figures of 2003.

Figures published this week show that the ITV1 programme about his appearance on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? attracted over 16 million viewers, putting it in the top 10 most watched programmes of the year.

Mr Ingram, who has since resigned from the Army, and his wife Diana, from Easterton, near Devizes, were convicted of fraud in April after the major cheated his way to the £1m prize on the popular television show.

The show, which included an investigation into how the fraud was committed, was shown by ITV on April 21 as the Millionaire Tonight Special.

The figures from the Broadcast-ers Audience Research Bureau (BARB) put the show fourth in the national ratings, with a 56 per cent share of the viewing public.

Audiences were shown how the couple conspired with Cardiff-based college lecturer Tecwen Whittock to defraud the makers of the series, Celador, of the £1m top prize.

Whittock, who was also convicted, coughed to indicate the correct answer of four multiple choices while Ingram seemed to vacillate from one answer to another.

The show even beat the controversial Martin Bashir interview with Michael Jackson into fifth place, with 15.3 million viewers.