Man faked own death for insurance money

A Sydney businessman who faked his own death wanted to collect a £1.5m (€2.2m) life insurance policy in a scam that also involved his wife and daughter, police told a court today.

Harry Bentley Gordon, his estranged wife, Sheila Gordon, and their 30-year-old daughter Josaphine, have all been charged with conspiring to defraud AMP insurance company by trying to claim his insurance policy.

Harry Gordon, 56, was remanded in custody today after appearing at a pre-sentencing hearing in the Raymond Terrace Local Court, 125 miles north of Sydney.

He pleaded guilty last month to four charges relating to the swindle.

He was listed as drowned after his motor boat was found in June 2000 with a smashed windscreen and two empty champagne bottles on the deck. But AMP Insurance refused to pay his wife’s claim.

Harry Gordon was arrested at Sydney airport last month on arrival from New Zealand, where he had been living with a new wife under the assumed name of Robert Motzel.

Police prosecutor Stephen Rae told the court an investigation had uncovered more evidence to bolster the case against the Gordon family.

Rae told magistrate Colin Elliott that police seized a card written by Harry Gordon to either his wife or daughter saying “the most important objective for 2005 is to stay out of jail ... our second objective is to get the money.”

Elliott ordered Gordon to appear for sentencing on February 13.

Josaphine Gordon, who is yet to plea to charges of conspiracy to defraud and committing perjury at her father’s coroner’s inquest, is free on bail until her scheduled appearance, also on February 13.

Sheila Gordon, 55, did not appear in court but is expected to enter a plea when she appears in a Sydney court next month. The maximum sentences they face were not yet known.