Surge in life insurance crimes, warns investigator
A specialist investigator says life insurance crimes appear to be on the rise.
Mike Bolhuis says the number of cases involving people killing their partners for insurance payouts seems to be increasing.
"The mindset of people has changed so badly because of the economy and the situation in the country and everything is falling apart and the corruption. This has turned the people's mindset where they say 'We can just as well commit crime and get involved in crime’.”
A Durban woman was recently convicted of the murder of her estranged husband and handed a life sentence.
Prosecutors said Analidia Dosantos and her lover, Teagen Brown planned and executed Mark Buttle's murder in 2018 to claim his life insurance benefits.
The policy was taken out after the 44-year-old Buttle got married.
Brown died while in custody.
Meanwhile, their neighbour Charmaine Khumalo was sentenced to 18 years behind bars for her involvement.
"There are many scenarios of relationships where a person in a relationship is targeted in order to gain their wealth and then go to the extreme of murdering that person," says Bolhuis.
"In the same time, they a new or have already a new lover or relationship, so it is seen as a double whammy. But it can also be a stranger or people who have been identified and life policies have been taken out on their names even without their knowledge."
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