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SCMP Reporter

A MAN took out an insurance policy worth C$100,000 (now about HK$585,000) for his wife seven months before she was burned to death in a car which he claimed she was helping him repair, the High Court heard yesterday.

   The body of Gloria Mak Wai-ngor, 40, was found in the rear seat of the vehicle and not behind the wheel, where defendant Chan Sai-kit claimed she had been. An expert believed she was not in the car at the time the fire started, the court heard.

  Chan, 44, a Canadian citizen and trained motor mechanic, has denied murdering Mak on October 23, 1989, in Tuen Mun, maintaining that the death was an accident. He is being tried by a jury before Mr Justice Wong.

  Prosecutor Gary Alderdice QC, said in his opening address the couple had been married for 10 years at the time of the incident.

  In a taped phone conversation in October or November 1986, Mak accused her husband of adultery and wanting to murder her, Mr Alderdice said.

  Chan replied that there would be no evidence of murder if the body disappeared and he would not be prosecuted, counsel said.

  After he was arrested on July 27 last year on his return to Hong Kong from Canada, he told the police that these were just words, Mr Alderdice said.

 Chan had been charged with wounding Mak in a knifing incident in November 1986 and had been due to appear in court.

   This was also discussed in the taped conversation, during which Mak agreed not to testify against him, counsel said.

  According to Mak's sister and brother, the couple had been heard quarrelling and Chan was said to have hit his wife on one occasion and punched her in the stomach on another.

   The sister also claimed that one morning in September 1989, she heard Mak accuse her husband of giving her chloroform, but Chan denied it.

  Mr Alderdice told the jury that in 1985, the couple had taken out life insurance policies, naming each other as beneficiary - Chan's was worth C$85,000, and Mak's C$35,000.

   Mak's policy was increased in 1988 to include another C$35,000 for accidental death, he said.

  Before they returned to Hong Kong the following year, Chan took out a travel insurance policy valid for one year from March 2, Mr Alderdice said.

  In this policy, which covered accident and disability, Chan was insured for C$200,000 and his wife for half that amount.

  Soon after taking out the policy, a friend who was an amateur lawyer drafted a joint will for them. Among clauses Mak wanted to include was that in the event of her death under suspicious circumstances, it should be investigated, and the couple's assets should go to a scientific research centre in China.

  But a couple of days later, Chan told the friend to drop the investigation clause, and to amend the other one to benefit his younger brother, claiming that Mak had agreed.

  At about 1 am on the day of the incident, according to Chan's statement, he called for his wife to help him repair the engine of his car, which was parked in a chicken shed.

  Chan had said his wife sat in the driver's seat turning over the ignition while he worked at a bench about three metres away.

  He allegedly told police that he heard the sound of the ignition and his wife saying ''come on'' before he turned around and saw the car in flames. He tried to save his wife but the flames were too intense.

  Chan maintained it was an accident, Mr Alderdice said.

  A forensic scientist who visited the scene in December 1989 concluded that Chan's statement was entirely consistent with the evidence at the scene.

  But when the scientist was asked to reconsider the matter last October, he could not preclude the possibility that the fire was started deliberately by someone who understood cars, Mr Alderdice said.

  The court heard that the terms of the travel policy taken out by Chan did not cover the circumstances of Mak's death.

  But it was the Crown's case that Chan must have thought the policy covered this sort of death because he filed a claim in July 1991.

 No money had been paid as the required document for the claim was not sufficient, Mr Alderdice said.

  The hearing continues today.

  Chan is represented by Gary Plowman QC.



Policy taken out before wife's death