A Croydon council officer has been found guilty of orchestrating the murder of her husband to prevent him from exposing her double life as a prostitute and gambling addict. Florence Samarasinha, 41, was convicted at the Old Bailey of murder and soliciting murder, and will be sentenced on 17 December.
The court heard that Samarasinha recruited a hitman to ambush and kill her husband Nimal, 37, outside their home in Wallington, Surrey, last January. She stood to gain thousands of pounds from his pension policies and their house equity. The killer remains at large.
Samarasinha, who worked as a housing benefits official, had lied about having five A-levels and a Cambridge degree to secure her £30,000-a-year job. In reality, she had no qualifications. She drove a silver Mercedes, sent her daughter to fee-paying school, and spent up to £100 a day on gambling. When debts mounted, she turned to prostitution, charging £100 per client.
Her husband, an aircraft engineer, became suspicious and hired a private detective who filmed Samarasinha offering a massage while topless. The tape was shown to the jury. She also approached several people to find a contract killer, including the head of Croydon's police consultative committee, and offered a council contract in exchange for murder.
Prosecutor David Calvert-Smith described Samarasinha as a “strong-willed and manipulative person” who appeared respectable while leading a secret life. She denied involvement, claiming she was undercover exposing housing benefit fraud.
