A woman who faked her own death to claim a $700,000 life insurance policy was seen withdrawing a wad of cash while shopping in Perth as she awaited sentencing for fraud offences..
F45 instructor Karen Salkilld, 42, faces up to seven years in prison for posing as her own partner and using the woman’s Medicare card and driver’s license to fraudulently obtain the death payment.
Dressed in a salmon pink PE Nation sweatshirt and black leggings, Salkilld scowled and clenched her fists as she withdrew a wad of $50 bills from an ATM in Perth’s southern suburbs on Thursday.
He is due to appear in court next week over the elaborate insurance scam in which he pretended to have died in a car crash in the Western Australian resort town of Broome.
Salkilld used a forged death certificate, a letter from the Coroners Court of Western Australia and a purported inquest record into her “death” last December.
The mother-of-two, who is from Cable Beach in Broome, lives in south Perth with her two children and partner, who is not involved in the Salkilld fraud.
The presumed dead fitness trainer was caught on camera last month as she went about her business casually in Perth’s southern suburbs.
She was spotted in a shopping centre and outside her home, and was also filmed vacuuming and welcoming customers at her F45 franchise in Applecross.
Karen Salkilld was spotted shopping in Perth’s southern suburbs on Thursday as she awaits sentencing for faking her own death in exchange for a $700,000 life insurance payout.
Salkilld frowned and clenched his fists as he pulled a wad of $50 bills from an ATM.
The mother of two faces up to seven years in prison for her brazen scam
Ambushed by a 9News Reporter As he left the parking lot of the North Lake Mall, Salkilld became angry when asked, “Why did you fake your own death?”
She clutched her chest with her hands and replied, “What the hell! Who are you? I’m not talking to you.”
Journalist Michael Stamp followed her as she prepared to cross the road and asked: “How did you think you could get away with this? You’re charged with serious fraud offences.”
Salkilld began the fraud on February 7 this year by posing as his partner to file a life insurance claim.
The lawsuit claimed Karen Salkilld had died in a car crash in Broome two months earlier and included forged documents to support it: a death certificate, a letter from the Coroner’s Court of Western Australia and a record of a death inquest.
Salkilld (above), who allegedly died in a car accident in Broome, Washington, last December, actually faked his own death to claim more than $700,000 in life insurance.
The F45 fitness instructor was left angry when questioned on camera about her elaborate fraud, which included posing as her own partner to claim a life insurance payout.
A week later, the insurance company paid $718,923 into a bank account opened by Salkilld in the name of his partner.
Over the next few days, Salkilld made several large withdrawals from the account, but due to the size of the withdrawals, the bank flagged the payments and froze the account.
In an effort to unblock him, Salkilld went to his local police station in Palmyra with several forms of identification, including a Medicare card and a driver’s license, and had them certified by a police officer.
These copies of the IDs were heavily altered before being sent to the bank, but failed the verification process, Nine reported.
When 9News reporter Michael Stamp asked Salkilld why she faked her own death, she replied: “Jesus Christ, go find somebody else.”
Scammer Karen Salkilld is an assistant football coach at the East Fremantle Sharks.
Salkilld is pictured left in Broome, where he claimed to have died in a car crash last December; and right at his F45 fitness studio, where he quietly went about his business this week after pleading guilty to a $700,000 fraud.
Police arrested Salkilld in March. At his first court appearance, he pleaded guilty to offences including obtaining benefits by fraud and attempting to defraud by knowingly using false records.
Salkilld is a former player and assistant football coach for AFL club East Fremantle Sharks.
Her social media pages include photographs of her with her two children in Broome.
When 9News followed her home in Perth, she turned to the reporter and said: “Are you trying to make things worse? Or are you trying to get F45 under the flag again or what?”
After entering his property, he shouted through the fence: “Jesus Christ, go and find someone else.”
A sentencing hearing in Washington District Court on July 26 will determine the date on which Salkilld will learn his fate.