Wanted man charged in Scotland

Claire Morris died shortly after marrying Malcolm Webster. Photo / Supplied

A man sought by New Zealand police for allegedly drugging his second wife in Auckland has appeared in court in Scotland accused of attempting to murder her.

Malcolm Webster, 50, is also charged with murdering his first wife to claim life insurance and faces a charge of bigamy for marrying a third woman after the New Zealander survived, reports Britain's Daily Mail.

The High Court in Glasgow will hold a preliminary hearing into the case on December 16.

Webster, from Guildford, Surrey, was arrested this year by Grampian police nearly a year after New Zealand police investigations triggered a review in Scotland of the death of his first wife.

Claire Morris died near the couple's home in a remote area of Aberdeenshire in 1994 when the car in which she was a passenger hit a tree.

Webster was driving and claimed he had swerved to avoid a motorbike. He said he managed to get out of the car before it burst into flames, but Ms Morris was trapped inside and died.

A toxicology report confirmed Ms Morris was under the influence of a powerful sedative - used to treat extreme epilepsy - at the time.

Detectives have since said Webster used a £200,000 (then $580,000) insurance policy payout on Ms Morris to move to Saudi Arabia, where he met New Zealander Felicity Drumm.

The couple returned to Takapuna and married in 1997. Shortly after their wedding, Ms Drumm told doctors she was having blackouts.

In 1998, Webster crashed his car in a remote spot near Takapuna, but Ms Drumm survived.

Treated by doctors after the crash she was found to have a strong sedative in her system.

Webster left New Zealand shortly after the Auckland crash.

New Zealand police said this year he was still the subject of four warrants after failing to appear in North Shore District Court on July 13, 2000. Two of them were for arson, the third was for selling, giving, supplying or administering a drug and the fourth was for disabling or stupefying his victim, his then wife.

Police investigating the Drumm case asked Scottish police to reopen the investigation of the first crash, by which time Webster was living with a third woman in Scotland.

Webster, a nurse, has always denied any wrongdoing and said the death of his first wife eight months after their wedding was a "tragic event".

- NZPA