The commercial insurer of the year went to “quite extraordinary lengths” to avoid paying an R18m claim for machines destroyed in a fire.

Renasa accused Christopher Watson of arson at his Cape Town firm and then stood by as he remortgaged his home, sold his car and borrowed money from his mother in his vain attempts to keep the business going.

But now a judge has come to his rescue.

• For more on this story, please visit Times Select.