Sailor who faked his own death is jailed

A sailor who faked his own death to cheat his company into paying compensation was jailed for nine years and fined 100,000 yuan (US$14,156) by Hongkou District People's Court on Wednesday.

Zhang Jinglei swindled the shipping company he worked for out of nearly 800,000 yuan, while his colleagues raised more than 10,000 yuan for the family. The money was used to pay for medical treatment for his father and his wife and living expenses.

He surrendered himself to police in October last year after police officers discovered he was using two identities.

Prosecutors said that at about 10pm on August 27, 2011, Zhang, who was on a Panamanian freighter, put a set of clothes, a pair of shoes, an uninflated life buoy, his identity card and some cash into a plastic bag and carried them on deck. He used a syringe to take blood from his left arm twice and sprayed on the shirt he was wearing and the deck.

He ripped buttons off and tore the shirt up to fake a "fight." The blood-stained shirt was left at the scene with one of his shoes and a iron bar, which was also sprayed with his blood. The syringe, his cellphone and the other shoe were thrown into the sea.

Zhang then jumped into the sea with the plastic bag tied to his waist and swam to shore.

He told prosecutors the shore was about 2 kilometers from the ship and it took him several hours to get there.

"It's a very tough period. For several times, I almost ran out of my strength and nearly sank in the sea," he said.

He said he had got the idea to fake his death from a Korean drama. 

After he went ashore, he put on the dry clothes and took a coach to his hometown in Shandong Province. He lived in a hotel near his home for a week before returning home to see his father. He told him he had killed a "thief" on the ship and asked his father to hide the fact that he was still alive. His father let him hide in a chicken coop.

Zhang’s crewmates found he was missing at dawn on August 28 and told police. An investigation was suspended as Zhang’s body could not be found.

Zhang's wife was contacted by the shipping company at noon on August 28 and she later went to Shanghai twice to see the site with other family members. The company reimbursed their travel expenses and organized fundraising for them.

On December 16, the company transferred 799,000 yuan to her bank account as compensation.

However, in early 2012 her father-in-law took her to the chicken coop, where she found Zhang. She told Zhang to return the money to the company but he refused. Zhang then took her and their two children to another town about 50 kilometers from their home and rented a house.

Zhang used another identity and hukou, or residence certificate, which he had bought for 3,000 yuan and used to do part-time jobs for seven years.

In July last year, Shandong police were checking those who had two hukou online and noticed Zhang. They called Zhang and told him to cancel one of them.

Zhang was worried that he was about to be found out so decided to give himself up to police on November 27.

In court, Zhang said his family was very poor and at that time, his wife had undergone hip joint replacement surgery and they were in debt.

Meanwhile, his father had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and needed to go to hospital. Zhang was in urgent need of money.

His lawyer said his actions were forced on him because of his hard life and that he had no malicious intent. 

However, prosecutors said Zhang's deeds had a negative effect on his company and colleagues, who had never received an apology. After Zhang had gone missing, his colleagues had been questioned by police as suspects and some had later refused to go on long voyages because of the incident. Prosecutors also said the family was unable to return any of the company's money.

Zhang told the court that after his release from jail he would be working hard to pay back the money.