A husband has gone on trial accused of murdering his first wife and trying to kill his second as part of a fraudulent plot to make hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Malcolm Webster is charged with murdering Claire Morris in Aberdeenshire in May 1994 and attempting to murder Felicity Drumm in New Zealand five years later.

It is alleged he murdered Ms Morris by drugging her, putting her in a car, driving it off the road and torching it while she was unconscious in the vehicle.

Webster, from Guildford in Surrey, stands accused at the High Court in Glasgow of fraudulently obtaining more than £200,000 after allegedly cashing in a series of insurance policies following her death.

The 51-year-old is further charged with deliberately crashing his car in Auckland, New Zealand, in February 1999, in a bid to kill second wife Felicity, a passenger in the car at the time.

He did so as part of an attempt to fraudulently obtain more than £750,000 in separate insurance payouts, prosecutors allege.

It is also alleged he intended to marry a third woman bigamously and told her he was terminally ill with leukaemia when he was actually in good health.

He denies the charges against him, which run to 11 pages on the indictment. Webster appeared at the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday. The trial is expected to last four months.

String of allegations

The charges state that Webster married Ms Morris in Aberdeen in September 1993. It is claimed he got her to leave him her entire estate in her will and take out a series of life assurance policies and a mortgage protection plan.

The murder charge accuses Webster of assaulting his 32-year-old wife in May 1994 and giving her Temazepam, rendering her unconscious.

Prosecutors allege he put her into a car and drove it down an embankment of the Auchenhuive to Tarves road at Kingoodie, Aberdeenshire. He is charged with setting fire to the vehicle, knowing that she was unconscious inside it and unable to escape.

Webster is then accused of telling four people he was the only one travelling in the car, preventing his wife from being rescued. He is alleged to have fraudulently cashed in a series of insurance policies, amounting to £208,815.

Another charge accuses him of receiving widower pension payments of £10,439 when he was not eligible for them.

Webster is further accused of assaulting and drugging his second wife in an attempt to murder her.

It is claimed he did so at locations in Aberdeenshire, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and New Zealand, between July 1996 and February 1999.

Prosecutors allege that, after their wedding in April 1997, in Milford, Auckland, he got her to leave him her whole estate in her will and forged her signature on life insurance policies. It is also alleged he later set fire to paperwork and an armchair at two properties in Auckland, in an attempt to cover his tracks from the alleged fraud.

The prosecution accuses Webster of packing a container of petrol, newspapers and a lighter into a vehicle and deliberately crashing into a tree in Auckland, on February 12 1999, in an attempt to murder his passenger, Felicity.

It is claimed the crash was an attempt to fraudulently obtain £514,026 and 500,000 New Zealand dollars in separate insurance payouts. Webster is also accused of getting Felicity to open two joint bank accounts with him and fraudulently taking more than £35,000 from her.

In a final charge, it is alleged that he formed a relationship with Simone Banarjee between August 2004 and January 2008 in Scotland. It is claimed he planned to marry her bigamously and induced her to make a will leaving everything to him.

It is also alleged he pretended to her that he was having chemotherapy for chronic lymphatic leukaemia. Webster denies all the allegations and the trial continues.

He denies the charges against him, which run to 11 pages on the indictment. The trial is expected to last four months.