Kenyon Confronts: The RIP Off was broadcast on 29 November, 2001 on BBC One

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In the first programme of his new series, Paul Kenyon exposes the 'dead men walking'; the fraudsters who fake their own death for life insurance money.

And to prove how easy it is he becomes a mourner at his own funeral.

On a journey from St Albans to the Caribbean via Leeds and Athens, Kenyon exposes the restaurant owner who has twice faked his death in a �1m fraud, and the man who fabricated his wife's demise despite the fact he never married and she never existed.

And in the fake death capital of the world, Port-au-Prince in Haiti, he uncovers a network of unscrupulous lawyers and funeral directors only too willing to help the living dead.

Forged papers

Individuals go to elaborate lengths to convince the insurance companies of the death, producing funeral videos and forged death certificates for their clients.

Kenyon in his funeral coffin

The fraudsters pay great attention to detail, asking Paul to slip into a coffin so the shots can be used in the souvenir video footage.

In Athens, Kenyon discovers all is not right; the restaurant owner is not interred in an Athens cemetery as documented and the doctor who claimed the man had died from a heart attack does not exist.

He pursues the trail, unearthing a complex and sensational story.