Man who faked death 'feeding the fishes'

Just two days after New Zealand-born businessman Harry Bentley Gordon went missing, his daughter wrote to his business colleagues saying he had perished and was "allowing the fish to dine on him".

Gordon, 56, was arrested by Australian police on Monday. They have charged him with faking his own death five years ago.

They are also investigating the roles his former wife Sheila and daughter Josaphine may have played in his disappearance and in a A$3.5 million ($3.7 million) insurance claim on his life.

His last known contact after enjoying a lunch of seafood and champagne at Karuah River in the lower Hunter Valley was a phone call to Josaphine about 6pm. Two days later, she wrote to employees of the engineering companies he ran, saying it was her sad duty to report her father had perished in a boating misadventure on Port Stephens.

"It was somehow appropriate that he should die driving flat out into the dark unknown with a glass of champagne in his hand without a hint of humility or self-doubt," she wrote.

"After dining rather well in a local seafood restaurant he was returning to our home in the dark at speed in his power boat and during that journey he has parted company with his boat."

The letter, obtained by the Newcastle Herald soon afterwards, said although his body had not been found there was little doubt he had died. "Our guess is that in a characteristic gesture of excessive reciprocity he is allowing the fish to dine on him," his daughter wrote.

Josaphine Gordon is understood to have visited her father in Auckland recently. She lives in England.

Mr Gordon's Australian former wife, Sheila, is understood to be co-operating with police and was interviewed three months ago as detectives closed in on his double life in New Zealand, where he lived under the name Robert Motzel, working as a commissioned salesman selling garages.

Versatile Buildings managing director Bruce Matheson said the man he knew as Motzel had joined the company in January 2003 and fitted in well, but had not stood out as anyone special.

"He was certainly an above-average sales-person. He was very keen to ensure the customer was well serviced and he did not like any of the links in our chain letting the customer down."

Mr Matheson said Gordon was enthusiastic about his work but did not talk about his background. "He talked about the future, not his past.

"There were really no clues there at all. This is a huge surprise to everybody."

Gordon told his real estate agent last Friday that he was going to Sydney to "tie up some loose ends".

He left a message on his office phone on Monday saying he would be returning to work on Wednesday afternoon.

It is believed Gordon was planning to return home - possibly to come clean - and had not tried to hide his true identity when he recently applied for a new passport under his real name.

He put his three-bedroom house in St Johns on the market last month. It is believed Josaphine Gordon and her young son spent some time living there this year.

Gordon shifted out of the home to move in with his new New Zealand wife, whom he married this year, honeymooning in the Cook Islands.

Real estate agent George Bayley said Gordon was "charming ... incredibly considerate. A real gentleman".

Gordon has lived mostly in New Zealand since he disappeared on June 3, 2000, after heading by boat across the Karuah River in the lower Hunter Valley to his luxury weekend retreat at North Arm Cove.

An oyster farmer found the 4m fibreglass runabout, the throttle on full and the fuel tank empty, beached on rocks the next morning, sparking an intensive search of the waterways.

Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey said the investigation was still current. "There are a number of persons of interest that we will speak to and I am sure some will ultimately be charged," he told the Australian newspaper.

New Zealand police are helping with the investigation.

Gordon was charged on Tuesday with conspiracy to defraud, obtaining benefit by deception, public mischief and passport offences.

He is in custody pending a court appearance next week.

One of the four charges alleges Gordon "did conspire with Josaphine Gordon and Sheila Gordon to defraud AMP Insurance of funds from a life insurance policy totalling A$3,500,000".

Mrs Gordon was the executor of her husband's will and, with Josaphine, was his beneficiary, the Australian said.

A spokeswoman for AMP said yesterday that its investigation book had remained open since 2000 and since no body had been found, no money had been paid out.

Deputy New South Wales State Coroner John Abernethy handed down a finding of death by drowning in 2001.

Gordon registered himself to vote in New Zealand as Robert Motzel and gave his occupation as "gentleman".