Man sentenced over insurance death scam

A man was sentenced to 13 years in prison after he helped his friend commit suicide but made it look as if he had been a mugging victim, in Dongguan city, Guangdong province, in an attempted insurance scam.

The court found that Huang Jucheng was aware of his friend Cai Jianxing's plan to commit suicide and defraud the insurance company.

Huang was convicted of intentional killing, since he not only refused to persuade Cai to give up his suicide attempt but also helped him end his life, according to the verdict passed by Dongguan Intermediate People's Court on Monday.

Both Huang and Cai are from Taiwan.

Cai, who was in heavy debt after a business failure, needed a large sum of money to help his son, who was critically ill, in January 2012.

Cai asked Huang to help him commit suicide but make it look as if he had been a victim of a street mugging to claim insurance compensation after he had purchased an accident policy valued at about 4 million yuan ($640,000) in Taiwan.

Both men went to Dongguan and simulated a scene that made it seem as if Cai had been robbed and killed in a park in Houjie township in the Pearl River Delta city.

Huang used shoelaces to tie up Cai and tape to cover his mouth and nose which led to his suffocation.