Train driver jailed for fake death scam

A TRAIN driver who faked his own death to claim a £150,000 payout was finally jailed yesterday after fleeing the country.

Clever Busumani, 53, was working on the London Underground when he returned to his native Zimbabwe in June 2011. While he was there, his wife Cynthia Chirairo called his employer, Transport for London, to say he had died.

She presented them with a fake death certificate in the hope of claiming a deathin-service payment of around £150,000.

But police had received a tip-off from insurance investigators that Busumani was still alive. A warrant was issued and he was arrested at Heathrow in 2015.

The couple pleaded guilty to fraud offences in May that year but Busumani fled before his sentencing. He was later given a 16-month sentence in his absence and Chirairo was handed 12 months.

Busumani, from Tottenham in north London, flew back to the UK earlier this month and was arrested on Thursday in Slough.

Defence counsel Michael Conning said as a consequence of his initial arrest and plea of guilty, Busumani’s wife kicked him out of the house. He said: ‘He was very depressed at the time and was contemplating suicide. He returned to Zimbabwe to see his mother and that’s where he remained. He asked me to apologise – he is quite a pleasant man.’

At Blackfriars Crown Court yesterday, Judge Peter Clarke QC passed a consecutive two-month sentence for skipping bail – making his total sentence 18 months.