Jail for fraudster who stole corpse

A man convicted of a multi-million pound life assurance swindle, despite "accomplices" trying to sabotage his trial with death threats and a witness kidnapping, was jailed for six years yesterday.

John Folagbade, 32, stole a decomposing body from a hospital mortuary as part of a carefully crafted plot to defraud life assurance companies out of a fortune.

But the jurors at Southwark Crown Court in London, who convicted him of 11 deception charges and one of forgery, were never told of the violence in Nigeria aimed at stopping the hearing. A pounds 100,000-a-head hit list, which included the names of the prosecuting counsel, Ian Stern, and the case officer Detective Constable Peter Burns, was also found.

Passing sentence, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC, told Folagbade that he had carried out a "major confidence trick". But the worst aspect involved the corpse, stolen from a hosipital in Nigeria, which he had had cremated and then, armed with a number of bogus documents, returned to Britain.

"Most extraordinarily and distastefully of all, you actually procured an unclaimed body of a man and had it cremated so you could produce totally bogus documentation to insurance companies," the judge said.

"This was indeed a very serious and determined fraud and you have shown you have no scruples when it comes to getting what you want."

The judge said he would recommend that the Home Secretary deport Nigerian- born Folagbade after his sentence.

During his three-week trial, the court that he had spent five years trying to perfect a "thorough, elaborate and careful" plot. Folagbade, of Southwark, south-east London, even went on a course with American Life to familiarise himself with the world of life assurance.