Andre Rebelo’s repeated denials in an interview with police over three life insurance policies he took out in his mother’s name a week before her sudden and unexplained death were played to a jury on Wednesday as part of the 28-year-old’s murder trial.
Rebelo is accused of killing Colleen Rebelo in her Bicton home in May 2020. He is fighting the murder charge, but admitted he took out three life insurance policies totalling more than $1 million in her name a week before her death.
Andre and Colleen Rebelo.
He also admitted forging documents including a will and a coroner’s report in a bid to cash in one of the policies that would have made him the sole beneficiary of $500,000.
But four years before he pleaded guilty to those charges, Rebelo sat down with two police officers to answer questions about fake email accounts, forged documents, a fake will, and life insurance policies in his mother’s name – and denied any knowledge of them.
“RAC received a payment for that life insurance policy, do you know anything about those transactions?” an interviewing officer asked Rebelo in September 2020.
“It was paid by an ING Visa bank card in the name of Andre Rebelo. Is that your bank account?”
“Yes,” Rebelo replied.
“Six days after that Colleen Rebelo passed away. So we’ve got life insurance policies being taken out and then she dies. And your bank account pays the one and only payment on that,” the officer said.
In the interview, Rebelo told the officers it was the first time he had seen an email sent to the insurance company two days after his mother’s death, and claimed he did not know whether his mother had any life insurance policies in her name.
“Did you have any understanding of the reason why your mother passed away?” an officer asked.
“Not that we know of, no. It’s a long process, it can take 12-14 months,” Rebelo replied.
The officers then told Rebelo a coroner’s report had been sent to one of the insurance companies on July 30, 2020, two months after Ms Rebelo’s death, stating she had died of natural causes.
Police asked: “Do you know anything about that?”
Rebelo replied: “No.”
The evidence tells me you created the RAC application and a week later your mum passes away; did you know that she was going to pass away? Did she say anything? – Nothing out of the ordinary, no.
Did you get wind of her being ill? Or were there any other issues going on? – Not that I’m aware of.
The trial continues.