UK & World News
The latest UK & World news stories from the Press Association.
Canoe scam wife to repay thousands
13:05, Nov 11 2009
Fraudster Anne Darwin has agreed to repay nearly £600,000 from the faked death scam she carried out with her husband, Leeds Crown Court has heard.
The married couple, who conned insurance companies after they staged husband John's death in a fake canoeing accident, will see their assets confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Mrs Darwin will agree to pay a total of £591,838.25 - made up of £363,700.01 compensation to the victims of the crime and £228,138.24 under the terms of the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Husband John, 58, was not at court, but he has agreed to pay a nominal sum of £1 because he has no financial assets. Mrs Darwin, 57, was in court for the confiscation hearing.
Anne Darwin was jailed for six-and-a-half years last year after a jury found her guilty of six counts of fraud and nine of money laundering. Her husband was jailed for six years and three months after admitting seven charges of deception.
The crooked couple, of The Cliff, Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, embarked on a new life in Panama after Mr Darwin faked his death in March 2002 by vanishing off the coast.
He turned up at a UK police station in November 2007, claiming he was a missing person with amnesia. But the pair's ruse was blown apart when a photo of the couple in Panama turned up on the internet.
During the trial at Teesside Crown Court in July last year, the jury heard the couple tricked the police, a coroner, financial institutions and even their sons Mark, 34, and Anthony, 31, into believing the former prison officer was dead. The court heard Mr Darwin obtained a passport in the name of dead Sunderland baby John Jones and lived secretly with his wife while they hatched a plot to emigrate to Panama and start a new life. Mr Darwin travelled to Panama where they bought a flat and planned to set up an ecology tourism business together.
But just weeks after his wife sold off their UK properties and joined him in Panama in late 2007, he walked into a police station in London and said he had amnesia. The former doctors' receptionist claimed during her trial that she was forced into the scam by her husband. But a jury did not believe her and found her guilty on all counts. Earlier this year the couple both lost appeals against their jail sentences.
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MPs back election reform referendum 23:05, Feb 9 2010
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Kraft reverses Cadbury factory vow 19:05, Feb 9 2010
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Temperatures set to plunge again 18:05, Feb 9 2010
A blast of wintry weather sweeping the country is expected to send temperatures plummeting to as low as -5C, bringing more snow and icy conditions, forecasters said. Eastern and south-east England will be the worst affected over the next couple of days, with Kent likely to see the heaviest falls. more
The latest UK & World news stories from the Press Association.
