AUSTRALIA: A former Sydney businessman, officially listed as drowned during a drunken boating mishap five years ago, yesterday admitted he had faked his own death to cash in on a life insurance policy worth €2 million.
Harry Bentley Gordon (56), who owned a Sydney engineering firm, appeared in a local court 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.
He pleaded guilty to charges including conspiring with his first wife and daughter to obtain money by deception, false representation resulting in a police investigation, and to possessing false travel documents.
Gordon was arrested last week at Sydney international airport after arriving from his native New Zealand, where he had been living.
Police say his first wife revealed Gordon's scheme earlier this year, after five years of questioning by his life insurance company, which had refused to pay the claim.
At an inquest in April 2001, it was ruled that Gordon drowned after being thrown from his boat when it struck a navigational marker.