FORMER Sully woman Diana Ingram, the wife of the Army major accused of cheating his way to the jackpot on ITV's Who wants to Millionaire? has taken the stand.

She has told Southwark Crown Court how watched in disbelief from the studio audience as her husband risked losing £468,000 when he reached the million pound question.

Mrs Ingram, 39, originally from the Vale of Glamorgan, told how she grew very "nervous and worried" and would have been happy if her husband had stopped after winning £250,000.

But, she added: "I don't like to take risks like he does."

Nursery nurse Mrs Ingram, who previously won £32,000 in the show's hot seat, said she had come to know co-defendant Whittock through a mutual interest in becoming a contestant on the show.

She claimed she made a call on the way home on September 9 without her husband's knowledge after he had become a 'roll-over' contestant for the next day's show.

On their way to that show she had called Whittock accidentally when she had tried to phone a friend to tell her about her husband's appearance in the programme, she said.

Asked about her police interview in which she said her husband was not there, she said she had given her answer because "they kept on about it".

She added: "I wanted them to stop asking questions. If he was aware I was speaking, he wouldn't have taken any notice I don't know if he'd taken any notice.

At this point, Mr Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting, accused her of "making things up and lying", which she denied.

Referring to the phone call, she said: "I was trying to phone my friend Sarah and accidentally got through to him (Whittock)."

She had been concealing this from her husband because: "It was just a bit of gossip - he doesn't have much time for it. He didn't really like it."

She denied deliberately phoning Whittock and "devising" the explanations afterwards, although Mr Hilliard highlighted discrepancies in her account to the police.

The hearing continues.