Man guilty of lake murder of school friend
A man has been found guilty of murdering his school friend in a bid to gain more than £375,000.
Jagdev Singh Rai was found guilty of murdering Jasbir Singh Bains by a majority verdict of a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court this afternoon and will be sentenced on Friday.
The body of victim Mr Bains was found floating in a lake in Dartmouth Park, West Bromwich, on November 28, 2012. His throat had been cut.
The jury had been told how Rai stole his school friend's name in order to take out a life insurance policy worth more than £318,000, several years before his death.
Mr Bains was said to have owed Rai £14,000 after falling on hard times, before moving to Canada to live with family.
While Mr Bains was there, Rai, of Salisbury Road, West Bromwich, used his name and date of birth without his knowledge to set up a life insurance policy worth £318,913.
He also obtained a mortgage for a property in the value of £56,703, using the same name.
In the event of the death of Mr Bains, who was aged 41 and of no fixed address when his body was found, Rai, 44, would have gained more than £375,000 including the value of that property.
Prosecutor Mr Peter Grieves-Smith had earlier told the court: "The defendant was not a rich man and could not afford to write off that £14,000 debt.
"He told police he knew Mr Bains needed to get back on his feet, but he was to tell a witness he was unhappy about the debt and that he knew people who could sort Bains out."
Det Insp Warren Hines said: "In the last few months of his life, Jasbir had a difficult existence; he had no fixed home, was an alcoholic and had little direction in life.
"Through it all, he thought he had a friend in Jamie Rai who, in the few weeks before his death, was very hospitable and let him sleep in a van parked at the back of his house.
"But Rai was secretly plotting what he thought would be the perfect murder; he would become a rich man by killing his 'friend', out of sight of the public and away from any CCTV cameras."
"It was a difficult and complex investigation, taking us many months to build up the evidence to identify Rai as a suspect, but as a result of old-fashioned detective work, we quickly built a strong case against him. The evidence we uncovered, although circumstantial, presented a very compelling case, one that the jury agreed was right.
"He denied the murder from day one but I'm glad the jury saw through his lies and that this cold-blooded killer is facing a lengthy period of imprisonment.
"My thoughts today are with Jasbir Singh Bains' family."
