The television presenters, Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, have promised to return the comedy award they were wrongly honoured with after an investigation.

Apparently, organisers at the British Comedy Awards, had promised Robbie Williams that he could present an award to the pair to guarantee his attendance at the event.  The two were awarded the People’s Choice Award in 2005 but the prize should have gone to Catherine Tate as her show had achieved more public votes than the Saturday Night Takeaway show hosted by Ant and Dec.

The duo were said to be “completely shocked” by the mistake and a spokesman said “They have been lucky to win many awards and would never want to win an award in this way.”

ITV was fined a record £5.67 million for cheating their viewing public out of millions of pounds in the premium rate phone-in competition scandal.  Ant and Dec’s Gameshow Marathon was fined £1.2 million for choosing “lively” sounding winners, while Saturday Night Takeaway, was given the biggest fine of £3 million after winners were picked on their convenient locality.

During the investigation, no evidence was found that the two presenters or Mr Williams were aware of  the situation.  The report said “While it can be concluded that the assurance was given to ensure Robbie Williams attendance to present an award, it cannot be concluded that this was the reason why the wrong winner of the People’s Choice Award was announced.”