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A woman who collected a $1.2 million insurance payout after her husband committed suicide has been told he is alive - and under arrest in Christchurch.
Police told the Auckland woman this week that the husband she "lost" in a suicide in 2002 is alive and well.
In addition to the alarming discovery, the woman is a co-accused with the man on two fraud charges.
But lawyers indicated yesterday that police now believed the wife was not involved in any scam and that she thought she was legitimately collecting the insurance. It was not clear last night if the $1.2 million payout would have to be returned.
The pair, who have children together, had been living apart when the man disappeared more than five years ago. They had not been in contact since.
Police allege the man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, faked his suicide and disappeared to live under an assumed name.
The defence suggested he had wanted to make a fresh start.
Last year his wife had him declared legally dead by the High Court and collected on his life insurance policies.
The man faces two charges of fraud and one of dishonestly using a document.
Each fraud charge relates to the insurance claims.
Christchurch District Court was told yesterday how the scheme unravelled. He was caught when he applied for a passport under his proper name to travel to Australia.
The case comes two months after one in Britain involving a father-of-two who walked into a London police station five years after he vanished.
In that case, John Darwin, 57, and his wife Anne, 55, are facing charges for allegedly obtaining money by deception.
Closer to home, Harry Bentley Gordon was sentenced in February 2006 over a failed $3.5 million life insurance scam in which he spent six years pretending to be dead while living under the name "Robert Motzel". He had moved to Auckland and married Kristine Newsome.
In the Christchurch case, the man was brought to court on Monday but because his wife and children had not then been told the news, a blanket suppression order was imposed.
Prosecutor Todd Nicholls said yesterday that the police now believed the wife was not involved in any scam.
Defence lawyer Elizabeth Bulger told Judge Raymond Kean her client realised the emotional issues his estranged wife and children would be dealing with.
She said he had had no contact with them since his disappearance and had not benefited from the insurance pay-out.
Judge Kean lifted the blanket suppression order, but made other orders that prevent publication of much of the detail of the case.
The man's name cannot be published, and nor can the name of his wife or family members or any details that lead to their identification.
Judge Kean refused bail as it was alleged the man had gone to extraordinary lengths to disappear and this raised a major concern about the flight risk.
Ms Bulger said: "There is no question that he's made things difficult for himself.
"All of his identification is under the assumed name. He is going to be without money.
"There are things he won't be able to do because he has been declared dead. For the moment he doesn't exist. He is going to have to deal with that issue."
The man, tall and clean-shaven, stood quietly in the dock during the 45-minute hearing. He spoke twice, to fill in a missing detail and to agree to his February 14 remand date.
- NZPA
