A MILLIONAIRE oil company boss feared for his life just weeks before dying in a horrific helicopter fireball, an inquest heard.

Stephen Curtis, 45, of Pennsylvania Castle, Portland, had to be identified using DNA testing because his body was so badly damaged in the crash on March 3 last year.

Mr Curtis, along with pilot Max Radford, 34, who had previously flown pop star Elton John, died instantly when their Augusta 109 helicopter crashed into the ground just one mile from Bournemouth airport.

A jury inquest into their deaths at Bournemouth Town Hall yesterday heard how Mr Curtis, then in charge of £16 billion Russian oil business Yukos, told his uncle he believed he would be murdered.

Eric Jenkins, of Headland Close, Portland, said he was speaking with his nephew at Gibraltar Airport when he predicted his own death.

"One of the last things he said was 'if anything happens it will not be an accident," he said.

Mr Jenkins added that Mr Curtis had told him he believed he was being watched by men outside his flat in Knightsbridge earlier that year - so he went out and offered them a cup of tea.

He said: "From my experience he could have had security but he didn't want it ... he just wasn't very concerned about it."

Pilot Lewis Norris, who flew planes for Mr Curtis, later told the hearing he believed Mr Curtis's lack of fear was connected to a mystery terminal illness.

He said: "I don't think he expected to live for many years ... he was having blood transfusions."

Earlier in the hearing Sherriff Payne, coroner for Poole, Bournemouth and East Dorset, said the case was "like a spy thriller".

He said: "Particularly because of Mr Curtis's activities, his Russian clients... they are all the ingredients for an espionage thriller, a thriller of any genre.

"A man living an apparent lifestyle of international Russians, Russian oil, all sorts of various ingredients which have excited the press in general."

Mr Payne continued: "Understandably, Mr Radford's parents are very unhappy. Their son was an experienced pilot. They are left with the view that it was, in fact, Mr Curtis who indirectly was responsible for what happened.

"That he may well have been a target, that either there may have been a defect with the helicopter that had arisen or that was generated by someone with malevolent intent and that this crash was manufactured in some way...

"I don't think they are suggesting any outside influences were used upon Mr Radford himself.''

Mr Payne added: "Although there are conspiracy theories, no theories have come forward as to exactly what happened. There is evidence from the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) that they do not think it was sabotaged in any way."

The hearing is continuing.