Gambler chops up friend to steal identity
> Victim’s bank account plundered to fund high roller lifestyle
LONDON: A “cruel and ruthless” killer may spend the rest of his life behind bars after murdering his friend, cutting up his body, stuffing it in a suitcase, and then adopting the richer man’s identity to fund a life as a high-rolling gambler.
After putting the headless torso of Yang Liu inside a suitcase and dumping it in a lay-by, Ming Jiang assumed the successful financial investor’s identity to such an extent he even texted his friend’s unsuspecting mother in China, pretending to be her son and saying all was well.
In fact by that stage Jiang had already used Liu’s credit card to buy the petrol which he poured over the suitcase and set alight in the hope of burning the body to render it unidentifiable.
Thinking he had made it look as if Liu had simply disappeared, the obsessive gambler drew large sums from his victim’s bank account and also took steps to sell the 36-year-old’s £185,000 (RM1 million) flat in order to pay off massive casino debts and continue his life as a high roller.
The Chinese national denied murder but a jury at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court unanimously found him guilty.
In an unusual development, Jiang, 43, then refused to come to court for sentencing, but judge John Potter went ahead in his absence and condemned him to life with a minimum of 33 years in jail.
Addressing his remarks directly to the killer despite Jiang’s absence, the judge told him: “Your actions ended the life of a gentle and kind young man.
“They demonstrate that you are a highly dangerous, cunning and ruthless killer prepared to stop at nothing to fulfil your own selfish desire to feed your gambling habit.”
“Your high spending, high-rolling behaviour was in fact a selfish and selfcentred veneer behind which you hid a life of increasing dependency on debt which was rapidly spinning out of control,” the judge told Jiang, who despite his “VIP persona” lived in a one-bedroom flat in the Beswick area of Manchester.
“The estimated losses you accumulated ran into hundreds of thousands of pounds.”
To clear his gambling debts, the judge said, Jiang resolved to kill Liu, a successful, popular Leeds University graduate who moved in the same casino-visiting circles.
“The plan was chilling but straight forward,” Potter said.
“You would commit a murder for personal gain.
“The clear motive was so that you could adopt his identity and gain access to his considerable financial assets.” – The Independent