An Australian businessman who faked his own death nearly six years ago in an attempt to cash in a 3,5-million Australian dollar ($2,5-million) life insurance policy was jailed on Thursday for 15 months.
Harry Gordon (56) who was declared officially dead after an apparent boating accident but never received the money, was also ordered to compensate police Aus$22 000 for the costs of searching for him.
Gordon was arrested at Sydney airport last November on arrival from New Zealand, where he was apparently living with a new wife under the assumed name of Robert Motzel.
Police had been tipped off by his estranged Australian wife Sheila. She and their daughter Josaphine (30) have now also been charged with conspiracy to defraud the insurance company.
Gordon disappeared on June 3, 2000. His abandoned boat was discovered on the Karuah River north of Newcastle on the country’s east coast, champagne bottles littering the deck.
A coroner ruled after an inquest that Gordon had drowned after he was thrown overboard when his boat ran into a navigation marker.
Gordon told the court he faked his death to escape a variety of pressures in his life.
“I thought that it was a solution to the problems I faced,” he said. “It obviously wasn’t a solution, it was a terrible misjudgement, a stupid thing to do.”
Gordon, who has been in custody while awaiting trial, pleaded with the magistrate, Sharron Crews, not to sentence him to imprisonment, saying: “I hate being in jail, it’s awash with drugs, violence and obscenity”.
But she said imprisonment was “absolutely necessary”. – AFP