Four-year fight over for missing man’s wife

Jacqui Hoyand has been battling authorities at home and abroad after her husband Jeremy, 41, disappeared at sea while jet skiing in October 2008.

Police in Bali stopped searching for him in February 2009 and closed the case, but refused to issue a death certificate because there was no proof he had died.

Without the certificate Mrs Hoyland, 47, from Penistone, has been unable to deal with any of her husband’s financial affairs - plunging the family into financial misery.

Now, after years of gathering evidence, Mrs Hoyland, who has two teenage daughters, Ellena and Georgia, has been informed the certificate will be issued.

Mr Hoyland, an experienced jet skier, disappeared after being invited to the Asian Beach Games.

He was heading out to sea when he lost sight of an older skier who was going much slower. He decided to go and look for him and was never seen again.

Project manager Mrs Hoyland is now campaigning for a change in the law, which currently states a person had to be missing for seven years before they can be presumed dead.

She added: “I wouldn’t have been able to conduct this campaign and get the help I needed if I had been an ordinary housewife with a part-time job.

“It was only because I made a nuisance of myself. The hardest part was proving he was not a missing person.

“It’s been a long hard battle and now my family can finally pick up the pieces of our lives again.”