F45 instructor Karen Salkilld, caught faking her own death, goes shopping and withdraws a wad of $50 bills

A woman who faked her own death to secure a $700,000 life insurance payout has been seen withdrawing a wad of cash while shopping in Perth while awaiting sentencing for fraud offences..

F45 instructor Karen Salkilld, 42, faces up to seven years in prison for impersonating her own partner and using the woman’s Medicare card and driving licence to fraudulently obtain the death benefit.

Dressed in a salmon pink PE Nation sweatshirt and black leggings, Salkilld frowned and clenched her fists as she withdrew a wad of $50 notes from an ATM in Perth’s southern suburbs on Thursday.

She is due in court next week over the elaborate insurance scam in which she pretended to have died in a car crash in the Western Australian resort of Broome.

Salkilld used a forged death certificate, a letter from the WA Coroner’s Court and a purported inquest file into his “death” last December.

The mother-of-two, originally from Cable Beach in Broome, lives in Perth’s south with her two children and her partner, who is not involved in the Salkilld fraud.

The fitness trainer, believed to be deceased, was filmed last month going about her business in Perth’s southern suburbs.

She was seen in a shopping centre and outside her home, and was also filmed vacuuming and welcoming customers to her F45 franchise in Applecross.

Ambushed by a 9News reporter outside the North Lake Mall parking lot, Salkilld broke down when asked, “Why did you fake your own death?”

She clutched her hands to her chest and replied, “What the hell! Who are you guys? I’m not talking to you.”

Journalist Michael Stamp followed her as she prepared to cross the road and asked: “How could you think you could get away with this? You are accused of serious fraud offences.”

Salkilld initiated the fraud on February 7 this year by posing as his partner to file a life insurance claim.

The complaint claimed Karen Salkilld had died in a car crash in Broome two months earlier, and included falsified documents to support the claim: a death certificate, a letter from the WA Coroner’s Court and a report from a death inquest.

A week later, the insurance company paid $718,923 into a bank account Salkilld had opened in his partner’s name.

Over the next few days, Salkilld made several large withdrawals from the account, but due to their size, the bank flagged the payments and froze the account.

To try to unlock it, Salkilld went to the local Palmyra police station with various forms of identification, including a Medicare card and a driver’s license, and had them certified by a police officer.

These ID copies were heavily altered before being submitted to the bank, but they did not pass the verification process, Nine reported.

Police arrested Salkilld in March. At her first court appearance, she pleaded guilty to offences including obtaining advantage by fraud and intending to defraud by knowingly using a false criminal record.

Salkilld is a former football player and assistant coach for East Fremantle Sharks AFL club.

Her social media pages include photographs of her with her two children in Broome.

When 9News followed her to her Perth home, she turned to the reporter and said: “Are you trying to make things worse? Or are you trying to put F45 back in the spotlight or what?”

After entering her property, she shouted through the fence, “Jesus Christ, go find someone else.”

A sentencing hearing in the WA District Court on July 26 will determine when Salkilld will know his fate.