"Nasty" Nick Bateman was disqualified from Channel 4's Big Brother house last night after four weeks in the show for breaking the programme's rules.
The former stockbroker was dismissed for "persistent infringement" of the rules of the surveillance gameshow by trying to manipulate the voting process which leads to contestants being evicted. Nick became a hate figure to viewers, but fellow volunteers had no idea about his scheming to win the £70,000 prize until yesterday.
Channel 4 and producers of the show decided this afternoon that he should go after his cheating came to light and he had a showdown with other contestants.
In a statement last night, Channel 4 said: "Nick was evicted at 5 p.m. today for persistent infringement of the Big Brother rules, after it came to light that he had yet again been attempting to manipulate the show's nomination process.
"He was discovered to have been writing notes and showing them to fellow contestants in an attempt to influence their voting intentions.
"The rules of Big Brother expressly forbid contestants from talking about nominations and tactical voting."
Each week, members of the house vote on who they think should be ejected, then viewers vote on a choice of two.
Nick, despite his lack of popularity with the viewing public, had been popular with his housemates and was the only person not to have been nominated.
His plotting came to light in the early hours of yesterday morning as his colleagues chatted. It led to Craig and Darren from the house searching Nick's suitcase, while he sat in another room unaware, and they found papers on which he had plotted his tactics to win the prize.
Big Brother organisers are expected to replace Nick.
As he said his goodbyes last night to his angry housemates, he said: "I did it for selfish reasons. I made a mistake and I apologise - it wasn't personal.
"It's been a very enjoyable six weeks and I wish all of you the best for the remaining four, five weeks here and the rest of your lives."