Judgment of the Kiel Regional Court
Death faked in the Baltic Sea: man has to be imprisoned, woman receives suspended sentence
The man who supposedly died in the Baltic Sea and his wife are sitting alive in the Kiel district court
© Markus Scholz / DPA
A couple tried to get insurance money for their husband’s death. But the alleged boat accident on the Baltic Sea was only faked. Now both spouses have received their punishment.
The couple is said to have faked the man’s death in a boat accident in the Bay of Kiel in October 2019 in order to get a good four million euros paid out from life and accident insurance companies. After the crime, the defendant hid for months, first in Hamburg and later in Schwarmstedt in Lower Saxony. Special police forces finally found him there in May 2020. His wedding ring flashed in the light of a flashlight as the man hid behind boxes.
Fake death in the Baltic Sea
Last week, the public prosecutor’s office demanded a total prison sentence for the defendant for attempted joint commercial and gang fraud in 13 cases, including the suspended sentence from the first trial of three years and two months, and a sentence of two years suspended for the woman. The defense lawyers requested acquittals for both defendants. The man and the woman had previously had confessions read out through their lawyers.
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The trial was no longer about the actual question of guilt. In February 2021, the Kiel regional court had already sentenced the couple to suspended sentences of one year and nine months or one year for attempting to defraud an accident insurance company. These decisions are legally binding. However, the Federal Court of Justice in Leipzig overturned the acquittals in 13 other cases of attempted fraud against other insurance companies. The court in Schleswig-Holstein now had to decide on this again.
Tampering with the boat discovered
Three days after the incident in autumn 2019, the woman reported her husband missing. But the police quickly became suspicious. An expert discovered that the boat had been tampered with and that it had caused it to sink. Contrary to what the defendant initially assumed, the death notification was not sufficient for the life insurance companies. They also wanted a death certificate or confirmation of his death from the district court. But that takes at least six months. The 13 term life and accident insurance policies were not paid out.