A BLACKBURN man who faked his wife's death so he could make a £50,000 life assurance claim has been jailed for two years.

Abdul Majid told an insurance firm that his wife had died from a heart attack and malaria while visiting Pakistan.

Preston Crown Court heard that just before leaving for the trip, Majid had taken out a life assurance policy which would pay £50,000 upon the death of either himself or his wife.

But the company smelled a rat when they discovered Majid had made an identical claim in 1989 which resulted in him receiving a three-year jail sentence.

Majid, 54, of Shaw Street, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to attempting to obtain property by deception.

Judge Ronald Livesey QC, told him: "The offence is so serious that I would not be justified in passing anything other than a custodial sentence."

The court was told by Lisa Roberts, prosecuting, that Majid arranged to take out the policy with the Scottish Amicable European Life Assurance Company in 1995.

In November that year, he contacted the company to ask when the policy took effect, explaining that he and his wife Tasim were soon going to Pakistan.

Miss Roberts said: "On January 4, 1996, his financial adviser received a letter from Majid in Pakistan informing him that his wife had died in hospital from a heart attack and malaria. "But the whole story was false."

She said the letter stated that Majid's wife had died on January 2, although it was postmarked December 30.

The letter requested a claim form be sent and contained a death certificate which turned out to be false.

But before any payments were made, the claim was investigated.

It was discovered that Majid had been jailed at Oxford Crown Court in 1990 for six deception offences, including an identical offence of claiming a life assurance pay-out.

Miss Roberts said: "The company found Majid's wife alive and well. She had never been in hospital.

Ahmed Nadim, defending, said Majid's downfall had started when he married into a family whose trade was crime.

He told the court: "Over a number of years this defendant was subjected to all sorts of violence and intimidation by this family, calculated to seek his compliance in their way of life.

"He has been used by his in-laws for their criminal agenda."

The offence he had committed in Blackburn and the ones in Oxford had been at the instigation of the family, who had pressured him to put his signature to claim forms made out by them.

Mr Nadim said that Majid had since divorced his wife and remarried.

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