A KILLER who almost duped a nurse into a bigamous marriage has lost a bid to have his conviction referred back to the High Court.

Malcolm Webster, 56, was jailed for a minimum of 30 years for murdering first wife Claire Morris, 32, in the planned crash in Aberdeenshire in 1994 and attempting to kill second wife Felicity Drumm in New Zealand in 1999 to claim insurance money.

The former nurse was handed the life sentence after being convicted of the crimes in May 2011 following a five-month trial in Glasgow.

He was also sentenced for attempting to bigamously marry Simone Banerjee to gain access to her estate.

Ms Banerjee grew up in Carlisle where she attended Stanwix Primary and Trinity schools. Her father was a consultant oral surgeon at the Cumberland Infirmary.

She was engaged to Webster, who persuaded her to bequeath her estate to him.

He lost an appeal against his conviction in 2013 when judges at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh rejected a claim he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice. In 2014, Webster launched a new bid to clear his name by asking the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) to look into his conviction.

It is the Scottish body which reviews alleged miscarriages of justice in criminal cases and has the power to refer a case back before senior judges for a fresh look.

The SCCRC has confirmed that Webster’s application has been refused.

A spokesman said: “The commission’s review has concluded and this case has not been referred to the High Court.”

Webster claimed the death of Ms Morris was an accident which happened when he swerved to avoid a motorcyclist.

He fraudulently claimed more than £200,000 from insurance policies following her death, later spending it on a Range Rover car, a yacht and on seducing a string of women.

In 1999 he tried to murder Ms Drumm in a copycat car crash in New Zealand in an attempt to claim more than £750,000 of insurance money.

The chilling story of Webster, his crimes and links to Ms Banjaree was highlighted in ITV drama The Widower in 2012.

Ms Banarjee met him in 2005 when they were at the Lorn and Islands Hospital in Oban. She was targeted after Webster discovered that she lived off a trust fund provided by her father.

He told her he had leukaemia, shaving off his hair and eyebrows and sticking needles in his arm to convince her. By January 2006 she had changed her will, bequeathing her estate to him.

They became engaged even though Webster was still married to Ms Drumm.

Speaking after his conviction for murder and attempted murder, Ms Banarjee described the moment she confronted Webster of Guildford, Surrey, about his crimes, as the scariest of her life.