Canoe couple face fresh fraud charges

by Martha Jones | January 8, 2008 at 11:45 am

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More trouble for the "back from the dead" canoeist John Darwin and his wife Anne.

John and Anne Darwin have been charged with additional counts of deception and will appear at Hartlepool Magistrates' Court in the morning, Cleveland Police said.

Mr Darwin, 57, a former prison officer, is already accused of obtaining a false passport in the name of John Jones and falsely claiming £25,000 life insurance.

Mrs Darwin, 55, is accused of obtaining a £25,000 life insurance payment by deception in May 2003 by claiming that her husband had been killed.

She is also accused of obtaining £137,000 to clear her mortgage by deception.

The pair spent Christmas in jail after being remanded in custody.

Police were quick to arrest them after Mr Darwin, thought to have died in a canoeing accident in 2002, walked into a London police station last December, claiming to be suffering from amnesia.

Mrs Darwin had recently emigrated to Panama, having sold the couple's home in England.