CAUGHT IN THE ACT – Some infamous attempts to vanish that failed

John Stonehouse

The former Labour Cabinet Minister appeared to have become a real life Reggie Perin when on November 20, 1974 a pile of his clothes were found on a Miami beach. However, while newspapers were busy compiling obituaries, he was en route to Australia, hoping to set up a new life with his mistress and secretary.

Bad luck foiled his plans when he was spotted by Australian police who mistook him for Lord Lucan. Deported back to Britain he went back to his day job, until he was eventually expelled by the Labour Party. Stonehouse pleaded not guilty to 21 charges of fraud, theft, forgery, conspiracy to defraud, causing a false police investigation and wasting police time, but after a trial lasting 68 days the jury didn't believe him and he was sentenced to seven years. Securing an early release from
prison in 1979, he married his mistress before dying of a heart attack six years later.

Karl Hackett

Following the Paddington train crash in October 1999, Karl Hackett was reported missing, presumed dead by a man who called himself Lee Simm. A month later it emerged Hackett and Simm were one and the same and the 38-year-old computer graphics worker had attempted to fake his own death in an attempt to escape his record as a sex offender. He admitted wasting police time, and the judge showed leniency giving him a five-month sentence suspended for two years.

Graham Cardwell

An air and sea search was launched when a life jacket and helmet belonging to assistant dockmaster Graham Cardwell was found on mud flats at Immingham Docks in 1998. Eight months later his relatives, who were still coming to terms with his death, were told he was alive and well and living 200 miles away. Police had been tipped off by an anonymous informant and Cardwell claimed he had chosen to stage his death after he had been diagnosed with cancer. No charges were ever brought.

Thomas Osmond

The past came back to haunt the civil servant who was thought to have killed himself by jumping off the Severn Bridge in 1995, the day before he was due to stand trial for sex offences. Despite leaving a suicide note, one detective was not convinced and tracked him down three years later living in Bristol under the name of Stephen Williams. He was eventually sentenced to seven years in prison.