Perth gym owner jailed for faking own death and collecting life insurance payout

A Perth-based F45 franchisee who faked her own death to claim a life insurance payout of more than $700,000 has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Having earlier pleaded guilty to gaining benefit by fraud and to knowingly using a false record to defraud, Karen Maree Salkilld has been sentenced in in the District Court of WA, with Judge Vicki Stewart saying the offending was not opportunistic and therefore a suspended sentence was not appropriate.

In February, the 43-year-old received more than $718,000 from an insurance company after claiming she died in a car accident in Broome in December 2023.

Salkilld provided a death certificate, funeral documentation and a letter from the Coroner's court to the company, Insuranceline.

She made the application in late January and the funds were paid on 14th February.

With Salkilld having pleaded guilty earlier this month, the Court was again taken through the facts, which included the details of how Salkilld opened a MyState Bank account in her former partner's name because she was the beneficiary.

There is no evidence the woman knew of the crime.

Salkilld had access to the woman's ID documents and was able to superimpose her own face onto the woman's drivers licence and passport to use as identification, and also set up an email account.

While she was initially successful in transferring funds to creditors, and to herself, MyState Bank froze the new account under suspicion.

That then led Salkilld to try other ways to free up the funds, including attending the Palmyra Police Station to get identification verified.

It was on her last visit to the police station, when she was pretending to be her ex-partner, that she was arrested.

Prosecutor Emily Roberts had previously described the crime as "planned and relatively sophisticated" and said it was not "victimless" because it involved a bank, an insurance company, police who certified documents and her former partner.

During her sentencing, Judge Stewart also raised the fact Salkilld's crime would have likely impacted other people's premiums.

Salkilld was sentenced to three years in prison. She will be eligible for parole after serving half of that time.

Once the sentencing was complete, Judge Stewart issued court orders relating to the funds being returned.

This included an order for compensation to the sum of $101,771.11 is to be paid by Salkilld to the insurance company and a restitution order for funds in the MyState Bank account.