Lotto £2.5m thief released from jail to free up space - despite not paying back stolen cash
Convicted rapist Edward Putman was jailed for nine years in October 2019 for stealing £2.5million from the National Lottery with the help of Camelot insider Giles Knibbs
Lotto fraudster Edward Putman was released under crisis plans designed to free up prison spaces, despite failing to pay back his stolen cash.
Edward Putman, 54, was jailed for nine years in October 2019 for stealing £2.5million from the National Lottery with the help of Camelot insider Giles Knibbs. Fresh details of the convicted rapist’s release have now emerged just days after the Mirror revealed he was freed less than half-way through his sentence.
Putman risked extra jail time after he paid back just £94,000 from his Camelot con - with financial investigators forced to seize his assets and put his home up for auction as they tried to recover £939,000. Despite his failure to comply with the Proceeds of Crime order, he was freed under the Government’s controversial End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme.
The ECSL was launched in October and originally allowed prisoners to be released up to 18 days before the end of their sentence. But last month it was announced criminals could be released from jail two months early in order to ease the pressure on crammed prisons.
A source said: “Putman showed contempt for the repayment of the cash he stole but was still released early. It’s appalling.”
The early release scheme was used to free Putman from his Lotto fraud sentence, not his 1991 rape conviction when he was jailed for seven years for attacking a 17-year-old girl.
It comes as a probe into an arson attack on Edward Putman’s mansion - which was eventually auctioned off for £1.2million - had been shelved. Putman’s derelict home in Kings Langley, Herts., was torched in October 2022 in a suspected arson attack.
Detectives were hunting arsonists who they believed had set fire to the sprawling property, which was littered with clapped-out cars and vehicles. But it has now emerged that “all lines of enquiry were exhausted” and the investigation “closed” without a single arrest being made.
A 2019 trial heard Putman crafted the scam with Camelot fraud worker Mr Knibbs, 38, using a fake ticket that Putman said he found in his van. Putman submitted it days before the six-month time limit to claim but was caught when Knibbs took his own life after he was duped out of his share of the jackpot.
Prosecutors had threatened to pile on extra prison time to Putman’s sentence if he failed to settle a £939,000 confiscation order. But the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that additional time was not added to his sentence.
He is now subject to tight conditions limiting where he can travel and who he can contact after being released.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We are creating an additional 20,000 prison places – the biggest prison expansion programme since the Victorian era – so we can lock up dangerous offenders for longer. Only lower-level offenders who are a matter of days before their automatic release date are being considered for the End of Custody Supervised Licence Scheme and anyone convicted of a sexual, terrorist or serious violent offence is excluded.
"Governors can block the release of any prisoner and those who are released face strict monitoring and can be sent back to prison if they break the rules.”
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