Telly addicts were today distraught after being told their dreams of a major cash prize lay in tatters.

Several readers phoned This Is Essex partner paper The Evening Echo yesterday, claiming they had won prizes on the Sun's Who Wants to be a Millionaire game. But, after several frustating hours they could not get through on the jammed lines.

Some believed they were set to claim up to £500,000.

But the Sun today said its lines were jammed with false winners who wrongly believed they were rich!

Arthur Wenborn was one such 'would-be' winner. In each advertising break in the 12-week ITV programme, numbers appeared on the screen.

Mr Wenborn, 66, of Chatfield Way, Pitsea, has been crossing the numbers off his bingo-type card and believed he was a winner. Those with successful tickets were told to call an 0191 number to claim their prize.

Mr Wenborn said: "On the back of the card it says to call between 9.30am and 3pm to claim the cash. I have been calling for four hours solid and am just getting a recorded message saying the line is busy.

"How am I expected to claim the money when I cannot even get through? I do not want to say I have been conned - I want the £500,000 like anyone else would."

Mr Wenborn phoned the Sun and BT - the company supplying the telephone line. Still, he claims he has got nowhere.

Michael Kelly, of Basildon, had similar trouble getting through to the competition winners' line, after crossing off the numbers he believed had won him £2000.

He said: "My wife and I have been playing the game since it started and we couldn't believe it when we won. When we tried to get through to claim our £2000, the line was constantly engaged."

He added: "It doesn't seem very fair that if you can't get through before the lines have closed, you lose the opportunity to claim."

The Sun today denied it had gaffed and accused readers of crossing off the wrong bingo numbers. It admitted its switchboard had been red hot with callers who thought they had bagged the magic £1m.

It even had to reprint the whole of this month's winning bingo numbers in response to the flood of calls, and set up a special hotline listing numbers that had NOT appeared in the newspaper or on the television.

One Sun worker said: "We have had many calls from readers who thought they had won.

"We do not like to disappoint our readers but it looks like many of them wrote down the numbers incorrectly. There was no mistake by us."

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