The six men charged with the removal of a corpse from a grave 14 days ago were granted bail, but placed under night-time house arrest, when they appeared in the Mandeville Resident Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

Gauntlet Holder, Glen Reid, brothers Winston Sylvester and David Malcom, from Westmoreland, as well as Dennis Vanhorne from Hanover were each granted $200,000 bail with one to three sureties. They were ordered to return to court on September 17.

RM Frank Williams in granting the men bail ordered that they report to the police three days per week and remain in their homes between 9:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily.

The men were arrested on June 21, when a police patrol stopped them as they drove along the Winston Jones Highway in Mandeville at 3:45 a.m. The corpse of Irvin Sinclair which was buried just hours before was found in one of the vehicles.

His body was discovered in the trunk of one of three cars in which the men were travelling. It is alleged the body was dug up from the cemetery of the St Jude's Anglican Church in Pratville, Manchester

Detective Sergeant Frank Miller, the investigating officer said this offence was committed only once in living memory. He quoted a defence attorney as saying that the last such offence was committed in 1901. He said this caused the delay in finding the appropriate charge.

Police investigations revealed that the exhumation was effected for an insurance scam with the master mind being an ex-police man who had planned to burn the body and claim for life insurance of a policyholder.