Games Network accused of conning viewers

A former Games Network presenter has claimed that viewers had no chance of winning the jackpot on the station's competitions.

Miranda Lipinski, 27, who hosted the Lucky Stars quiz for the channel, revealed that producers posed as members of the public who won huge amounts by calling the show's premium rate phone number.

"The scam was that viewers would only win small amounts, up to about £100. They had no chance of winning the jackpot," Miranda told The Mirror. "Every day we had to be seen to be giving away bigger sums, so an employee or some other insider would be put on air with a fake call.

"Most of the time all the big amounts were "won" by fake contestants and the money never left the company. It was one big scam. It's a disgrace that every day people were being conned."

Channel owners Cellcast charged £1 each time viewers called in to participate in the quiz.

A Cellcast spokesman insisted: "We utterly refute these unsubstantiated allegations. The company has full details and lists of all of its many hundreds of winners throughout 2004. Indeed, there were more than 100 winners each month during the period of 2004 that the shows were running, collecting a total of £55,000."