A Chinese seafarer has been arrested more than seven years after allegedly faking his own death.
The crewman named as Zhang, 40, is facing a fraud trial after he claimed compensation from a shipping company, prosecutors in Shanghai’s Hongkou District said, according to the Shanghai Daily.
Most of the nearly CNY 800,000 ($120,000) payout was used to settle debts and his father’s medical fees, as well as for failed investments and daily expenses.
Zhang was one of 20 crew on a Panamanian-flagged ship that left Japan for Shanghai on 24 August, 2011.
Prosecutors said he decided to copy the plot of a Korean film and fake his own death for money.
Disappearance planned
Three days into the voyage, he packed a clean jacket, a pair of shoes, some cash, a life jacket and his identity card in a plastic bag as the vessel approached port.
He tied it around his waist and took some blood from his arm using a syringe, spraying this on his clothes and the deck.
He then allegedly tore his shirt and dumped it on deck, while also leaving a shoe at the scene.
Zhang is then accused of jumping overboard and swimming for several hours, before returning to his home town in Shandong province.
Prosecutors allege Zhang told his father he had killed someone on the vessel and asked to be hidden.
He was lodged in a chicken coup, where he stayed for about three months.
Zhang allegedly then told his wife about the "murder" to stop her returning the compensation.
The family then left to live in another town for seven years with a new identity.
But he appears to have been caught out when police contacted him about holding two "hukou" (household identity) cards.
