Police couple who paid a deadly price chasing the middle-class lifestyle they couldn't afford: Guilty, inspector who strangled wife when she learned of his secret £54,000 loan to fund their gilded lives

To his friends and family, police inspector Darren McKie appeared to have it all.

A blonde wife, three beautiful children and a newly renovated home in one of Cheshire's most sought-after towns.

The couple each had successful careers and drove smart new cars, while their children enjoyed a variety of afterschool clubs, including ballet, tennis and cricket.

But behind the Facebook gloss, McKie, 43, an officer with Greater Manchester Police, was struggling to pay for the trappings of their charmed way of life.

Unbeknown to his wife, McKie, who was in charge of their finances, had secretly racked up £115,000 in debts, allowing the family to live way beyond their means for years.

Chester Crown Court heard that matters came to a head when the officer secretly applied to borrow £54,000 in his wife's name.

Mrs McKie, 39, a part-time detective constable in the same force, found out and was furious. On September 28 last year she confronted her husband, branding him a 'liar' in a series of angry texts, causing McKie, who was a martial arts enthusiast, to flip and kill her with his bare hands.

Despite earning £3,900 a month between them, their income was nowhere near enough to finance the lifestyle they wanted and saw being enjoyed by their friends and neighbours in the affluent Manchester commuter town of Wilmslow.

After their mortgage and all their other debt repayments, the couple were left with just £80-a-month to live on – nowhere near enough to run a home and feed a family of five. In fact, prosecutors said, they were facing a staggering £1,600 shortfall every month and – in the seven months before the murder – spent almost £58,000 more than they earned.

In February last year, with the help of a £300,000 mortgage, the couple had bought a £435,000 detached home in need of renovation with the fourth bedroom Mrs McKie was desperate for. On top of the mortgage, they had £115,000 of debts, with several bank accounts and credit cards in the red.

Up to £70,000 was lavished on building work to transform the property into their dream family home, which even had its own account on the photo-sharing site Instagram. Walls were knocked down to create an impressive kitchen-diner and pictures posted by Mrs McKie included those of high-spec white gloss kitchen cupboards, underfloor heating and an island with £3,500 granite worktops that wouldn't have looked out of place in a footballer's mansion.

In one post, Mrs McKie gushed: 'My island. So happy I persuaded Darren to go for it! Love it!' Another £6,000 was spent on new windows and £4,900 on bathroom suites. New sofas and carpets were bought on credit.

The court heard that while the work was being completed the couple lived in a £1,500-a-month rented property around the corner. Their food bills regularly topped £900 a month.

The McKies' spending also included dinners at San Carlo in Manchester and The Grill on the Edge in Alderley Edge – expensive restaurants popular with celebrities and footballers.

According to Mrs McKie's Twitter account they also splashed out on a stay at Dormy House Hotel, in the Cotswolds, for her husband's 40th birthday. Rooms at the luxury country-house hotel, outside Broadway, Worcestershire, which is regularly named among the best hotels in Britain, cost up to £400.

In eight years they spent £200,000 on credit cards and £30,000 on holidays, including breaks to Centerparcs and a £4,500 family trip to Portugal a month before the murder.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5538401/Inspector-strangled-wife-learned-secret-54-000-loan.html

I suspect there's a lot of people living this way, in debt, beyond their means, crowing about their wonderful lives on Facebook etc. I'd rather just save up for things I want.

Obviously, killing one's wife is a serious crime, but didn't she enable him to rack up those debts? She must have known they were living beyond their means.

HoratioTarr wrote:I suspect there's a lot of people living this way, in debt, beyond their means, crowing about their wonderful lives on Facebook etc.    I'd rather just save up for things I want.

Me too. I hate the thought of being in debt. If you can't afford something, don't buy it. Even if you can afford it, think about whether you really need it or not.

I agree Raggs, The only thing I ever bought on hire purchase was a Bedroom Suite when I first got Married, paid it off in 1 year. Saved up £300 for deposit on new house,cash price £3000, paid it off in 10 years. For the last 40 years, not owed a penny to anyone !

Raggamuffin wrote:

HoratioTarr wrote:I suspect there's a lot of people living this way, in debt, beyond their means, crowing about their wonderful lives on Facebook etc.    I'd rather just save up for things I want.

Me too. I hate the thought of being in debt. If you can't afford something, don't buy it. Even if you can afford it, think about whether you really need it or not.

I knew someone who was hell bent on living in Cheshire when neither she nor her husband could really afford it. Needles to say it all went tits up.

I agree with everyone else here....don't get into debt you cant afford to pay off.
Mortgage and a couple of cars in the past we didn't pay off up front. Everything else we have saved and paid for.
It doesn't help that people use plastic all the time now....come the statement and they only pay the minimum, then the debt grows at an alarming rate.

This couple obviously lived way beyond their means....but murdering his wife because of it is going a tad too far.

Syl wrote:I agree with everyone else here....don't get into debt you cant afford to pay off.
Mortgage and a couple of cars in the past we didn't pay off up front. Everything else we have saved and paid for.
It doesn't help that people use plastic all the time now....come the statement and they only pay the minimum, then the debt grows at an alarming rate.

This couple obviously lived way beyond their means....but murdering his wife because of it is going a tad too far.

I suspect that he got in over his head to please his wife, so she could have an island in the kitchen and other stuff, and then couldn't get any more loans, so he took one out in his wife's name instead. Then when she objected, perhaps he lost his temper because of all this debt he got into, largely for her benefit, and saw red. I doubt that it was premeditated before they got into a row about it.

Why do people want those islands in their kitchen anyway? You can't sit at them if they have drawers and cupboards, they get in the way, and they just get covered in junk.