Many cheated and won on 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire'

In a highly organised operation, the consortium secretly provided contestants with answers and played the system to plant their members on to the ITV show.

Applicants who paid a fee, thought to be around £500, would be slipped the answers to the questions that researchers used to pick who would be invited into the studio. And if they made it to the hot seat opposite host Chris Tarrant, the player could call on the syndicate to get help using the ‘Phone A Friend’ lifeline.

Producers believe the gang netted ‘at least’ ten per cent of the £50 million prize money paid out on the show from 2002 to 2007.

Paul Smith, the boss of production company Celador, became aware of the scale of the operation as a new drama was being put together about the ‘coughing major’ scandal, in which Charles Ingram cheated his way to the £1 million jackpot.

Smith met up with the kingpin of the operation, Paddy Spooner, a former contestant on three versions of the show in the UK, Ireland and Australia, who told him about their scheme

Smith, who devised the Millionaire format, admitted last night: ‘We were naive. We believed people would play the game in the spirit it was intended, but serious quizzers began to realise the massive potential. What they began to do was find ways of penetrating the system to get into the studio by completely, totally ignoring the rules.’

The syndicate worked out that producers used the Office for National Statistics database for the questions they asked would-be contestants over the phone.

Dedicated quizzers would also be on hand for the ‘Phone A Friend’ lifeline during the recording of the shows. If the expert posing as the friend was sure of the answer, he would signal so by saying: ‘I am 90 per cent certain.’

It is believed that the participants also agreed to share their winnings with the consortium.

'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' bamboozled by hi-tech crime syndicate, deprived of millions