A 40-year-old man has been jailed for four years after he was found guilty of stealing his late wife’s life insurance pay-out.
Two months after she was diagnosed with cancer in September 2017, the wife of Krysztof Baczyski, previously of uk/news/uk/Corby" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="Corby" data-wpil-keyword-link="linked" data-wpil-monitor-id="159706">Corby, sadly died.
During her life, she had paid into a life insurance policy and listed one of her children as the trustee of the policy and the other as the benefactor.
However, when she died, Baczyski fooled one of them into signing over the money for safekeeping, promising to look after the cash until they were old enough to benefit from the policy.
However, unbeknown to them, Baczyski decided to spend the money on luxury holidays, experiences for him and his new girlfriend, and a cosmetics pyramid scheme. He also lent money to friends – burning through the entire £200,000 pay-out in just nine months.
Shockingly, he had already spent the critical illness portion of the insurance whilst his wife was still alive.
The crime was reported to Northamptonshire Police about a year later once his step-children realised what had happened and Baczyski was charged with fraud by false representation.
Despite pleading not guilty to the offences, he was found guilty by a jury at Northampton Crown Court in August and sentenced earlier this month (December 4) to four years in prison.
Lead Investigator – Detective Constable Lee Meadows said: “Krysztof Baczyski was the step-father to this woman’s two children and had been in their lives for 15 years when his wife died.
“This makes his actions even more shocking as I just don’t know how he could be so callous as to steal her life insurance payout from them and use it on such short-term material gains.
“This woman tragically died of cancer, far too young, but before she did she had put things in place to secure her children’s financial future. I truly hope Baczyski is ashamed of his actions and reflects on them during his time in prison.
“I am really pleased that we have managed to achieve a conviction in this case and I hope it provides this woman’s children with some closure and the ability to honour the memory of their mum without this case hanging over them.”
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