Canoe fraudster’s wife Anne Darwin to repay nearly £600,000

John and Anne Darwin, who staged husband John’s death in a fake canoeing accident in order to con insurance companies, will see their assets confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Mrs Darwin will pay a total of £591,838.25 — made up of £363,700.01 compensation to the victims of the crime — the insurance companies — and £228,138.24 under the terms of the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Financial investigators assess that the Darwins benefited to the tune of £679,194.62 from the fraud, but only £591,838.25 of the money was realisable, Jolyon Perks, for the prosecution, said. John Darwin, 58, was not at Leeds Crown 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. She listened to the proceedings from the dock accompanied by a dock officer.

The couple, of Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, hatched a scheme for Mr Darwin to fake his death in March 2002 by vanishing off the coast. The court heard that Mr Darwin obtained a passport in the name of dead Sunderland baby John Jones and lived secretly with his wife while they arranged to emigrate to Panama and start a new life. Mr Darwin travelled to Panama first. The couple bought a flat and planned to set up an ecology tourism business together.

But in November 2007, just weeks after his wife sold off their UK properties and joined him in Panama, he walked into a police station in London claiming that he was a missing person with amnesia. The pair’s ruse was blown apart when a photo of the couple together in Panama turned up on the internet. During their trial at Teesside Crown Court in July last year, the jury heard the couple had tricked the police, a coroner, financial institutions and even their sons Mark, 34, and Anthony, 31, into believing that Mr Darwin, a former prison officer, was dead.

The trial judge said their sons’ lives were crushed by the deception and that meant a severe sentence was necessary. Mrs 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.

Mrs Darwin, a former doctors’ receptionist, claimed during her trial that she was forced into the scam by her husband. But the jury did not believe her and found her guilty on all counts. Earlier this year the couple both lost appeals against their jail sentences.

The insurance giant Aviva, which used to be known as Norwich Union, was defrauded of £200,158.06 when the Darwins made a claim on a mortgage insurance policy. AIG was conned out of £40,603.01 when the couple cashed in a life insurance policy.The Darwins also made claims on Mr Darwin’s prison pension of £84,447.64, his teaching pension of £34,217.70 and a Department of Work and Pensions payout of £4,273.60.