A mother faked her death in Africa and instructed her teenage son to lodge bogus life insurance claims after racking up debts of £80,000, a court has heard.

Arafa Nassib, 48, was rumbled after fraud investigators found no trace of her supposed grave in Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, and were told she was living in Canada.

Nassib and her 18-year-old son Adil Kasim pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to commit fraud against Scottish Widows between March and December last year.

The pair, of Lower Rushall Street, Walsall, were arrested after a claim for £136,000 was submitted on two life insurance policies along with a death certificate said to have been issued by a hospital in Tanzania.

Birmingham Crown Court was told Nassib, who came to Britain from Kenya as a refugee in 1998, had built up substantial debts with furniture firms BrightHouse and PerfectHome.

Opening the facts against the mother and son, prosecutor Jonathan Barker told the court Nassib took out life insurance policies under a former name in 2013, naming her son as the beneficiary.

Mr Barker said: "On May 6 2016 a claim was sent to Scottish Widows by letter by her son, Adil Kasim.

"Had the fraud been successful then the conspirators would have benefited to the sum of £136,530."

The claim, the court heard, stated that Nassib had died from a severe head injury and was backed up by a death certificate dated April 14.

Insurance investigators then travelled to Zanzibar and found that a doctor who was reported to have treated Nassib was not working - or even in Tanzania - on the day of her alleged death.

It was then established that Nassib had flown back to Birmingham on an Emirates flight and travelled on to Canada after speaking to Kasim on a mobile phone while in the UK.

Mr Barker said of Nassib: "She took the lead role in this conspiracy and she involved her young son. The offending was sophisticated and involved, no doubt, significant planning."

Defence barrister Mohammed Riaz, mitigating for Kasim, claimed the art and design student had been immature and naive, having acted under the instruction of his mother after she contacted him from Africa.

"He was reluctant to become involved in this conspiracy but was pressed to do so and to his great credit not only made full admissions (to police) but provided information for them to continue their inquiries," Mr Riaz said.

Nassib's lawyer, Jim Olphert, told the court his client's debt had grown after she bought furniture after moving into a flat in 2009.

"She didn't pay off those debts, leading to a significant accrual of interest," Mr Olphert said.

"By the time it in effect reached crisis point in 2015 she owed in the region of £80,000."

Nassib and Kasim will be sentenced on Wednesday.

By Matthew Cooper.