Salford man accused of hacking into dead mans account remanded

Police have charged a Salford man on suspicion of attempting to access bank accounts of the family of an engineer murdered in the French Alps.

Nigerian-born Abiodun David John, 33, has been remanded into custody after he was charged with 8 counts of fraud. It's after he allegedly trying to get into accounts in the name of members of Saad al-Hilli's family after his death in September.

Surrey Police have stressed that the fraud charges were not linked to the ongoing investigation into who murdered the Iraqi-born engineer together with his wife, mother-in-law and a French cyclist.

John was charged with obtaining a pre-paid credit card using the name Andrew Craig on August 14 to load with money from the HSBC account of Mr al-Hilli. He is also accused of obtaining a Bank of America credit card in the name of al-Hilli between September 6 - the day after he was killed - and September 11.

The other charges in relation to the murdered engineer are for allegedly trying to gain control of his HSBC bank account, and attempting to open accounts in his name at Royal Bank of Scotland and internet retailer Amazon.

About 100 police officers in Britain and France are investigating the murders of engineer Mr al-Hilli, 50, his dentist wife Iqbal, 47, her elderly mother, Suhaila Al-Allaf, 74, and passing cyclist Sylvain Mollier in a horrifying gun attack near Chevaline, Lake Annecy.

The couple's four-year-old daughter Zeena lay undiscovered under her mother's corpse for eight hours after the shooting, while her seven-year-old sister Zainab was found with serious injures after being shot and beaten.

French investigators searched the al-Hilli family home in Claygate, Surrey, in the wake of the deaths.