Richard & Judy to axe phone-in quiz

Richard and Judy have decided that their controversial 'You Say, We Pay' quiz will not be making a return to the show.

The decision came after thousands of viewers registered to receive a refund for calls made to enter the competition after the list of potential winners had been chosen each day.

A source told The Mirror: "The quiz was originally suspended until the outcome of the investigation, but now producers have decided there's no way it can come back. It was a popular feature of the show, but Richard and Judy are determined to draw a line under the affair and decided the best way to do so would be to ditch it."

One viewer - 62-year-old Patricia Brooker - yesterday claimed that she exposed the alleged con on Channel 4's online forum in December 2004, but was quickly banned from the discussion site.

"I was one of four viewers who exposed this," Brooker explained. "But they deleted our claims and banned me from the forum. I'd been getting suspicious about the quiz. Then one afternoon there was a contestant who seemed really nervous and Richard was trying to calm her down. Live on air she admitted she'd been on the phone to a producer for 20 minutes.

"I couldn't believe it, only five minutes earlier they had been begging people to call up for a chance to get on the show."

A spokesman promised to look in to Brooker's claims, but warned: "There are proper channels for viewer complaints, and people with genuine concerns should always use those rather than posting on a web forum."