Mortgage broker in ‘mountain of debt’ murdered wife to get hands on life insurance money
A mortgage broker has been found guilty of of murdering his wife to get a £450,000 life insurance payout.
A mortgage broker who murdered his wife for insurance money has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum 24 years.
Robert Hammond, 47, faced a “surging mountain of debt and financial pressures” at the time he strangled his wife Sian Hammond, 46, Cambridge Crown Court was told.
Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC said the defendant was in around £300,000 of debt and had paid off the arrears on his wife’s life insurance policy four days before her murder.
Mr Paxton said that Mrs Hammond’s policy was for a £450,000 payout in the event other death. Hammond denied his wife’s murder at the family home in Histon, Cambridgeshire, but a jury found him guilty.
He had dialled 999 just before 2am on October 30 last year and told the operator he had found his wife face down on the bed and not breathing.
The court heard that a post-mortem examination “established Sian Hammond had been strangled and sustained other injuries”. Judge Mr Justice John Cavanagh told Hammond: “On the face of it, you had an enviable life. Behind this facade, cracks were beginning to show.
“The businesses were in a great deal of debt.” He also said that Hammond had lied to creditors to put off payments, claiming that he had cancer.
