"Dead" Man's Wife Arrested On Fraud Charge

Had Shared Home With Husband For Years After He Was Declared Dead

(CBS/AP)  The wife of a not-so-dead canoeist returned home to a police welcome.

Stepping off an overnight flight from Atlanta, Georgia, this morning at Manchester Airport, Anne Darwin was arrested on suspicion of fraud, CBS News correspondent Larry Miller reports.

The 55-year-old had gone to Panama to start a new life with her very-much-alive husband whom everyone thought had died in a canoe accident five years ago.

John Darwin had recently resurfaced years after going missing and being declared dead.

Darwin walked into a London police station five years after his apparent death at sea, claiming amnesia. He was charged on Saturday with life insurance fraud and lying to get a false passport.

Police allege he masterminded an elaborate fraud to clear his family's debts, and said he would appear before a court on Monday.

They said they wanted also to question Anne Darwin, who had been in Panama, but left there Wednesday. Two British newspapers reported Saturday that Anne told them her husband had spent much of the last five years hiding at home in the northeastern city of Hartlepool.

The Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror said Anne Darwin had given them an account of her husband's missing years. According to the accounts, Anne Darwin said the couple had tens of thousands of pounds of debts caused by the failure of their apartment rental business.

The tabloids quoted her as saying, "John said there was only one way out of the situation, and that was to fake his death. I pleaded with him not to do it, I said it was the wrong thing to do."

According to the newspapers' account, Anne Darwin said she had not expected her husband to go through with the plan - and genuinely thought he was dead when he disappeared. But a year later, her husband came knocking at her door, she was quoted as saying.

According to the newspapers' account, she said her husband pressured her to keep his reappearance a secret so he could have himself declared dead. That would allow her to collect £25,000 (now worth approximately $50,000) in life insurance and lift the burden of her mortgage, the newspapers said.

They quoted her as saying that after authorities officially declared him dead, her husband moved in with her and hid in a small room reached through a hole in the wardrobe, and that he hid in the house for three years.

According to the newspapers, she said the two moved to Panama this year and that her husband was tired of living in hiding and decided to return to Britain, claiming to have forgotten what had happened to him.

Associated Press writer Rob Harris contributed to this report.

[kaelinda]

Insurance fraud is not so uncommon anymore, since insurance companies take large sums of money from people every month knowing they won''t ever have to be repaid because most people don''t die during the term of the insurance. And there''s no way to get your money back, either. It''s a full fledged scam. If you die, your beneficiaries have go through a long legal procedure to get the money - and of course, the executor and the lawyer get the lion''s share of it, The beneficiary gets the lawyer''s leftovers.

[rowdytexan2]

Oh geezus, this is even stupider than the Marine wife who needed a boob job! omgggggg!

[tm121]

This case is hilarious, the somewhat inappropriately named Darwins must be exceedingly stupid to pose for an internet company''s website pictures and to expect people to buy the amnesia story to name but two reasons. They claim their sons had no knowledge of the scam yet they both gave up good jobs recently for no apparent reason. Don''t send them to jail, give them a reality show - they''d make great viewing!

[ladyephesus1]

Money; The root of all evil.

[rafterman1]

===Well, now it''''s all her husband''''s fault! Come on! Both of them belong in jail. But . . . you just wait. I bet they''''ll get a lot of money out of this. They will write a book and then the book will be the basis for a movie. And lots of people will buy the book an watch the movie! We glorify robbers and make heroes out of crooks!===
posted by adian1

I don''t know about in the UK, but in the US it is illegal for convicted criminals to profit from their crimes.

But as far as her saying she really thought he was dead, please. He comes up with a scheme to fake his death, then he apparently dies (without a body being found). Pretty coincidental, huh? And it never occurred to her he went through with the plan? I don''t think so.

[adian1-2009]

Well, now it''s all her husband''s fault! Come on! Both of them belong in jail. But . . . you just wait. I bet they''ll get a lot of money out of this. They will write a book and then the book will be the basis for a movie. And lots of people will buy the book an watch the movie! We glorify robbers and make heroes out of crooks!