Former Australian businessman admits faking death

A former Sydney businessman, officially listed as drowned during a drunken boating mishap five years ago, today admitted he had faked his own death to cash in on a life insurance policy worth 3.5 million Australian dollars (€2.2m).

Harry Bentley Gordon, 56, who owned a Sydney engineeringfirm, appeared today in Raymond Terrace Local Court, 125 miles north of Sydney, near where his motor boat was found in June 2000 with a smashed windscreen and two empty champagne bottles on the deck.