Faked death in Honduras earns UK jail cell

Another British insurance fraudster who faked his death, like John Darwin who was found in Panama,  will be reflecting what went wrong, in a jail cell.

A judge sentenced Anthony McErlean, 66, to six years improsonment after he committed ''deliberate and calculated fraud'' by impersonating his wife to claim he had died after being struck by a produce truck in Honduras on December 6, 2009.

Fake official documents, including a death certificate, were produced in a bid to back up his bogus tale, claiming the crash happened as he was changing a tire.

A made-up witness said he was travelling with McErlean to take wildlife pictures, and that following the crash farm workers took his body away to a small village called Santa Rosa de Aguan.

Police were alerted by the Insurance Fraud Bureau, which had been contacted by suspicious officials at Ace European insurance company, which did not pay out a penny to McErlean unlike the  case of John Darwin who received hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The  latest case bears similarities to that of back-from-the-dead  Darwin who faked his own death in a canoe accident off Teesside in England in 2002 to help him and his wife Anne claim insurance and pension cash before fleeing to Panama where they bought an apartment and a large  Toyota 4×4. They were uncovered when the real estate agent who sold them the apartment posted their pictures on his website.

He lost a client and they lost their freedom Both were sentenced to six jears in jail.

In the latest case,detectives from Kent UK, arrested McErlean and found him with a debit card in the name of Green.

It emerged that not only had he faked his own death but he had been claiming pensions relating to his late father-in-law from a previous marriage who died in March 2007.

At Canterbury Crown Court on June 13, McErlean, pleaded guilty to a series of charges.

They included fraudulently making a claim to the Ace European insurance firm, fraudulently obtaining a passport and two counts of theft from a pension fund from the Port of London Authority totalling some £27,000 and £40,658 from the Department of Work and Pensions.

Dressed smartly, bearded McErlean showed no emotion as he was sentenced by judge Adele Williams.

She told him: "This is deliberate and calculated fraud, not only from corporate bodies but also from the public.

"In my judgment, you were driven by a desire to gratify your own overweening greed.”