THE winner of Channel 5 game show, The Mole, has shared his £88,000 prize money with his fellow contestants after even his parents were fooled into thinking he was a saboteur.
On Sunday, December 2, it was revealed that far from being the mole of the title, Chris Lintern, a 27-year-old company director from Chapmanslade, not only won the money but gave a share to runner-up, Paul Tregear, and new father, Dafydd Williams.
He said: "We all got on really and had a great time together and sharing the money seemed like a natural thing to do, the right thing to do."
Mr Lintern joined nine other contestants in Canada to take part in a series of mental and physical challenges, including leaping off high cliffs and being chased by tracker dogs.
All the while, one of them was a saboteur, trying every trick possible to hamper the efforts of the others without being found out.
At the end of each day, the contestants completed a questionnaire focusing on the identity of the mole the one with the lowest score was then eliminated from the game. In Sunday night's episode, the identity of both the mole and the winner was finally revealed, to the relief of Mr Lintern, who was unable to reveal his win until the episode was shown.
He said: "It is still a bit surreal I've been living with the secret for about 10 weeks and it hasn't really sunk in yet."
By the time there were just three players left he had guessed who was the mole but had tried to throw runner-up, Paul, off the scent by acting suspiciously himself.
He said: "My parents phoned me after they watched it and were amazed. They and everyone else thought I was the mole.
"My mother was quite upset that she had been fooled."
Mr Lintern was reunited with his fellow contestants in London at the weekend to take part in a final episode that will show how the mole worked to undermine the group.
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