A husband tried to fake his own death by staging photos of himself in a morgue so his wife would stop asking him for money.

Danny Gonzalez, 27, who is originally from Honduras but lives in the US, took photos of himself with cotton wool stuffed into his nostrils and mouth, and a white sheet over his body.

He sent the photos to his wife living back home in Saba, southern Honduras, along with a picture of a flower-covered coffin in a funeral parlour.

A message told her he had died from cancer and asthma, according to reports.

However, the ruse backfired after local media in his hometown started to report his sudden death, and the new reached his shocked friends and elderly parents.

When local media finally found him alive, he admitted the hoax was a ploy meant to make his wife believe he had passed away.

He said his wife would call him every week just to ask him to send her more money.