A mortgage broker who was in £300,000 of debt has been found guilty of murdering his wife, having paid off the arrears of her life insurance policy days earlier.
Robert Hammond, 47, faced a “surging mountain of debt” when his wife Sian Hammond, 46, was found strangled on 30 October last year, Cambridge Crown Court was told.
Hammond was said to have paid off the arrears on her life insurance policy just days earlier.
Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC told the trial that Hammond faced about £300,000 of debt and had spent months lying and creating excuses to delay payments to HMRC and a financial company.
Mrs Hammond’s life insurance payout was for £450,000.
Hammond denied his wife’s murder but was found guilty by unanimous verdict on Wednesday, Cambridge Police said. He will be sentenced on 23 July.
Robert Hammond. Pic: Cambridgeshire Police
In October last year, Hammond rang 999 just before 2am and claimed he had found his wife face down on the bed, not breathing.
Mrs Hammond was pronounced dead at the family’s home in Histon, Cambridgeshire.
The court was told that a post-mortem “established Sian Hammond had been strangled and sustained other injuries, including to her vagina”.
At the time of her death, Hammond, who ran a business called Hammond Mortgage Services, was around £300,000 in debt.
About £200,000 of this was owed to Legal and General and an agent pursuing the money had rang him on the same day he murdered his wife, the court was told.
Mr Paxton said that Hammond told the agent his wife had died “that morning” and that “even though they were divorcing she was the mother of his children”.
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The prosecutor said the defendant’s case was that they were happily married.
However, on 3 November, Hammond rang the agent about the debt and asked “if he was able to pay off the debt quicker, as he would be having life insurance paid to him, would Legal and General review the interest payments on the debt balance”.
“Sian Hammond had been dead barely a week and this was the defendant’s focus,” Mr Paxton said.
He added that Hammond “had [his] eyes on the prize of Sian’s life insurance pay-off”.
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Detective Inspector Richard Stott, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said Hammond was a “competent liar and the large debts and financial pressures he was under became clear”.
“His greed and fear of losing his public standing led to him murdering his wife to benefit from her life insurance and to continue to hide his debt and lies,” he added.
“Our thoughts go out to the family and friends of Sian; she was a loved and well-liked person and an active and successful businesswoman.”
In an earlier statement, Mrs Hammond’s family said: “Everyone that knew her would agree Sian was one of the friendliest people you could have the pleasure of meeting, and she will be sorely missed by many.”