Astonishing detail reveals how ‘dead woman walking’ Karen Salkilld – who faked her own death and got paid out $700k – came unstuck
New details have emerged about how a fitness trainer brazenly stole her lover’s identity and faked her own death as part of a scandalous $700,000 life insurance fraud.
Karen Salkilld, 43, a mother of two from Perth, posed as her partner in February to tell her life insurance company that she had died in a car accident two months earlier.
Salkilld filed a claim using a false death certificate, a forged letter from the Western Australian coroner and a fictitious report from the inquest into the death she claimed occurred in her hometown of Broome, in north-west Western Australia.
However, it has now emerged that the scam failed after she clumsily pasted her own photo over her partner Kelly Winter’s ID as part of the scam.
The shocking detail was revealed after Salkilld uttered just six words as she appeared in court charged with fraud and desperately tried to speed up the legal process.
During the brief hearing at Fremantle District Court in March this year, Judge Nicholas Lemmon noted that the sums involved in the fraud were “unusual”.
And he revealed that when police asked ‘Kelly Winter’ to report to Palmyra police station, Salkilld used the forged documents to prove her identity.
Mr Lemmon explained to Salkilld that on February 10 this year she ‘knowingly presented a passport, a Western Australian driver’s licence and a Medicare card in an attempted fraud’.
Karen Salkilld has been out and about in Perth as she awaits sentence for faking her own death by posing as her partner by displaying ‘her likeness’ on a passport and driver’s license in her partner’s name
Salkilld used the documents of her partner Kelly Winter, who was not involved in the scam, to pose as her partner after faking her own death to steal $718,923
The Honourable Man asked Salkilld whether the objects were ‘registered in the name of Kelly Winter and bore your image?’
Salkilld agreed.
The hoax was initially successful and a week after the false claim, the insurance company paid out $718,923 into a bank account Salkilld had opened in her partner’s name.
But the fraud came to light when Salkilld began withdrawing large sums from the account. The bank flagged the payments and froze the account before police intervened.
Despite serious allegations of fraud, the so-called ‘walking dead woman’ is regularly seen going about her daily business.
Sallkild has been spotted shopping, running her F45 studio and coming home to the $1 million Perth rental home she shares with her partner and young daughters.
Salkilld is also an assistant football coach for the East Fremantle Sharks club and has worked at one of Perth’s two F45 fitness studios, in Applecross and Dianella.
Her partner, who lives with her in Myraee in Perth’s south, was not involved in the scam.
Salkilld faces up to seven years in prison when she appears in the Western Australian District Court to hear her sentence. The next hearing is now scheduled for August 23.
She has pleaded guilty to a series of offences, including obtaining profit by fraud and deliberately defrauding by knowingly using a false file.
During her two-minute plea hearing in March, which her lawyer described as an “expedited guilty plea,” Salkilld indicated she would undergo a psychological assessment to seek leniency before being sentenced.
Despite the brazen attempt at fraud, Salkilld has been adamant that its extraordinary deception be brought into the spotlight.
As Salkilld emerged from the parking lot of the North Lake shopping center in June, she was ambushed by TV cameras. When asked, “Why did you fake your own death?” she responded with anger.
She clapped her hands to her chest and snapped back, “What the hell! Who are you guys? I’m not talking to you guys.”
Salkilld granted an expedited trial on fraud charges but faces up to seven years in prison
The F45 coach and women’s soccer team coach will learn her final sentencing date on Friday as the Western Australian District Court meets to hear her case
If Salkilld is given a prison sentence, she is likely to be sent to Bandyup Women’s Prison in north-east Perth, which houses female prisoners with complex needs.
Current Affair journalist Michael Stamp followed her as she crossed the street and asked: ‘How did you think you could get away with that?
‘You are accused of serious fraud offences.’
She was chased back into her home, shouting from the gate, “Jesus Christ, go find someone else.”
When Daily Mail Australia caught Salkilld shopping in Perth, she looked angry as she picked up a wad of $50 notes.
Wearing a salmon-pink PE Nation jumper and black leggings, Salkilld frowned and clenched her fists as she withdrew money from an ATM in Perth’s southern suburbs.
If she is given a prison sentence, she is likely to go to Bandyup Women’s Prison in Perth’s north-east, which houses female prisoners with complex needs.