Auckland man exposed as millionaire who faked death

Robert Motzel clearly expected to be back in his Henderson office yesterday.

A message on his work phone recorded on Monday says he is heading to Sydney but will be back about lunchtime on Wednesday.

But instead he flew into a police trap in Sydney that exposed him as Australian millionaire Harry Bentley Gordon, who was believed to have drowned five years ago.

He has been in New Zealand since at least November 2002, and married a New Zealand woman in September. But it was his first wife, Sheila Gordon, who tipped off police that he was living in New Zealand as Robert Motzel.

He has worked as a housing consultant at Versatile Buildings in Henderson for three years, according to a colleague.

The 56-year-old, who listed his occupation in New Zealand on the electoral roll as "gentleman", is now behind bars in New South Wales charged with conspiracy to defraud, obtaining a financial advantage by deception and passport offences.

Gordon was last seen in June 2000 in his 4.8m fibreglass runabout in the hamlet of Karuah near Port Stephens, north of Newcastle. An oyster farmer found his boat the next morning, the throttle on full and the fuel tank empty, beached on rocks.

There were initial police suspicions that he had staged his death and was living in New Zealand, but a year later a coroner handed down a verdict of death by drowning, believing he had been thrown from his boat after it struck a navigation marker.

Gordon was at the time described as a Sydney millionaire businessman who owned five companies that had major engineering contracts.

Police are keeping silent about how his web of deceit was uncovered, but his estranged wife has detailed an elaborate, yet flawed, plan to cash in a $3.81 million life insurance policy.

A police statement to a Sydney court on Tuesday said that when police interviewed him, he "was vague and gave the impression he was living a life of fantasy".

The statement revealed that his wife, Sheila, had told police in August her husband was alive and living in New Zealand as Robert Motzel.

She described how he had prepared for his disappearance, and had remained in Sydney for a year after his "drowning".

Mrs Gordon said that in July 2001 he left Australia on a false passport, and travelled to Spain, England and South Africa. She alleged that he told her his share of the $A3.5 million AMP life insurance policy was to be transferred to various overseas bank accounts. She said he settled in New Zealand after their relationship collapsed.

Australian police contacted New Zealand authorities and discovered that Robert Motzel had, in early September, married a New Zealand woman.

After honeymooning in the Cook Islands, he made his way to Fiji, where he was given a New Zealand passport with his real name.

Gordon was declared dead in 2001, but without a body AMP would not pay out on the policy.

The court was told Gordon took out a life insurance policy with the company in February 2000, four months before his disappearance. On April 14, he bumped up the value by $A1 million and left the money to his estate, whose beneficiaries were understood to be Mrs Gordon and a daughter.

He was remanded in custody until later this month and Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey said that Australian police were still seeking "co-conspirators".

Last month, Gordon put a flat he owns in St Johns on the market for just under $200,000.

A Versatile Buildings workmate said he was aware of something in the background of the man he knew as Motzel but the story he had been told did not resemble the case that has since been revealed. The colleague did not want to comment further.

It is not clear why Gordon was going to Sydney for two days but clearly he was intending to come back and resume his life as Robert Motzel.

His answerphone message said: "If you want to leave a message, I'll probably get back to you late Wednesday or early Thursday morning."