Man, 23, to be executed in China for killing his mum in staged car accident with 2 friends for insurance payout

A 23-year-old man in Taizhou, China was sentenced to death after he conspired with his friends to kill his 44-year-old mother in a staged car accident in order to obtain her insurance payout.

According to South China Morning Post, the man, surnamed Lu, had knocked the woman down after luring her to a roadside on Sep. 30, 2023.

Spent mother's previous insurance payout, hurt father for more payout

Lu and his two friends, identified as Yang and Cheng, had devised the insurance scam after his mother, surnamed Xu, received 320,000 yuan (S$58,600) in an insurance payout when she suffered injuries from a road accident in April 2023.

Lu and Yang later withdrew the money from her bank account to spend it on luxury items.

They had also planned to injure her by stabbing her in the eyes to claim further insurance money, but to no avail.

They later poked Lu's father's eyes with a bamboo stick and managed to secure a smaller payout of 1,300 yuan (S$238).

Lu, Yang and Cheng then plotted a larger insurance fraud.

Yang suggested killing Lu's grandfather, saying drivers who killed elderly people in accidents often avoided jail.

However, he refused to carry out the plan as his grandfather had raised him.

Lured mother out and knocked her down

Instead, they decided to target Xu, with whom Lu had a strained mother-son relationship.

In a statement to the police, Lu said he had agreed to kill his mother as Yang had told him that his family's life would "improve a lot" if he received her insurance payout after her death.

Lu lured his mother to go out with him and left her waiting by a roadside on Sep. 30, 2023.

Yang then drove a car, along with Cheng as a passenger, and deliberately rammed into her.

Xu was pronounced dead in hospital.

Sentenced to death and jail

During investigations, police found that their statements did not align, and that they had also planned how to split the insurance money.

Lu and Yang were both sentenced to death in April 2025 by the Taizhou Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang province, while Cheng was given seven years' jail for assisting the two men.

The ruling was only made public recently, reported SCMP.

The court said their "despicable intentions" had caused a "malicious impact" on society, and ruled that they deserved severe punishment.

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