Dentist jailed for faking death in £2m con

Emmanouil Parisis forged documents to show he had died in a car crash while on holiday in Jordan and his wife, Anabella Stiliani, claimed on 15 policies.

He started a new life in Scotland under the name of Neil McClaren.

His wife's sister, Nikoletta Theodoropolou, took her place and lived with him in Peterhead while she played the part of the bereaved widow and looked after their four children at the family home in Barnstaple, Devon.

His children went through the torment of believing he was dead for three months before he reappeared alive.

McClaren faked his death because he was 395,000 in debt and was about to be barred from working as a dentist under his old identity after string of complaints.

He was earning up to 135,000 a year as an NHS dentist in Barnstaple but lived a champagne lifestyle with lavish family holidays in Greece and he was spending up to 195,000 a year.

He was so far in debt by the time he disappeared he was paying almost his entire salary in interest and charges.

He told the police who arrested him he had faked his death to escape the fury of his family after changing his religion from Muslim to Orthodox Christian, but Plymouth Crown Court heard this was yet another lie.

McClaren stayed in Greece for a couple of months after the accident and then returned to Britain under his new identity and moved to Scotland, where he joined a dental practice in Peterhead.

He registered with the British Dental Council as Dr McClaren without revealing he was the same man they were about to strike off. He was only suspended after his arrest.

McClaren is a Palestinian who was born in Jordan and has lived under at least three names. He took Greek citizenship after qualifying as a dentist and this enabled him to work in Britain under European Union rules.

Detectives found a kit for forging Greek and Jordanian documents at his home and identity cards which enabled his wife and her sister to pose as each other.

He had a Jordanian, a Greek and two British passports, in three different names, all of which were genuine.

They also recovered a mobile phone which contained pictures of the couple partying in Greece at a time when he was meant to be dead and she was supposedly in mourning.

McClaren claimed from a raft of financial institutions and was caught because they became suspicious and hired private detectives to check his story.

He also claimed from the NHS pension fund and his wife made hardship claims to the British Dental Association's Benevolent Fund, which gave the family 400 a month in supermarket vouchers.His two biggest claims totalled almost 1.8 million on their own but were never paid out and his swindle eventually netted only 51,092.34. If everything had been paid the total would have been 1,886,348.34.

McClaren, 46, of Fair Isle Crescent, Peterhead, and his Greek wife Anabella, aged 41, of Fallow Fields, Barnstaple, both admitted seven counts of fraud.

Similar charges against Stiliani's sister Theodoropolou, a 42-year-old dental nurse, were dropped after Plymouth Crown Court heard she had not taken part in the false claims.

Judge Paul Darlow jailed McClaren for five years and his wife for 16 weeks. She was released immediately because she has already served the term while awaiting trial.

After the case, Detective Inspector Michael West said: "McClaren had champagne tastes but left very little tangible from all the money he spent.

"He is an extremely complex character, cold and calculating and it should be borne in mind he was defrauding not just insurance companies but the NHS and charities."

Mr Michael Hall, prosecuting, said McClaren, then called Parisis, started work in Barnstaple in 2003 but was fired in June 2009 after complaints from patients which were also being investigated by the dental authorities.

He had practised in Britain under three names, and there were complaints against all of them but the BDA had not linked the different identities.

Three months later he went to Greece on the pretext of visiting family and then moved on to Jordan, where he faked his death on 4 September. His bank then helped his wife claim on his life policies. He moved to Scotland in early 2010.