London A benefits cheat who used handouts to pay for his wife's breast enlargements then faked his own death to escape justice was finally locked up on Thursday.

Psychologist Stephen Kellaway was caught after the Daily Mail tracked him down to Thailand.

Assumed name

He had been living under an assumed name after swindling £43,000 (Dh 249,121) in housing and council tax benefits.

Kellaway faked his death during a family holiday to Russia, where his wife had breast enlargement surgery. He bribed a Moscow mortuary worker with a bottle of vodka to place his passport on a dead tramp and got his wife to identify the body as his.

He later fled to Bangkok using a false passport in the name of a boy who had died, and lived off the rental income from his £1 million London property portfolio.

Life insurance policies

The father of two planned to bring his family out to Thailand to live with him by cashing in three life insurance policies worth £1.7million.

However his time on the run came to an end when the Mail discovered he was alive and confronted him.

Thai authorities later deported the 54-year-old back to Britain where he admitted a string of benefits fraud and false documentation offences.

Selfish plan

On Thursday, jailing him for two years and eight months at Croydon Crown Court, Judge Shani Barnes said he had carried out a "cynical and selfish plan".

She said: "It struck at the very heart of the benefits system. People such as yourself who criminally steal from those who rely on benefits and from the taxpayers who pay for them, undermine that system and demolish its credibility."