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Canoeist Missing For Five Years Turns Up Alive

theres been a lot of awful puns in the headlines the last few weeks, mostly along the lines of "Canoe believe it!" etc...
 
The story was even referred to on Strictly Come Dancing last night!

There's fame, if you like.

maximus otter
 
As the police have now interviewed the sons, and said they are also 'victims' of this crime, my theory is that Mrs Darwin promised them money from the properties she'd sold, in order to set themselves up in their own businesses.

That's why they'd just left their jobs, and are now as shocked as anyone else that their father has turned up out of the blue. Their parents have been very cruel to them, and now the money they'd hoped to use for their own futures is probably locked up in bank accounts that they can't touch because of the investigation.

No jobs, no parents (both in custody and who the hell would want to ever speak to their parents again after they'd done that to them?), no privacy, as I bet there's a reporter outside each of their houses right now. If they're genuinely innocent of all this, they must be devastated.
 
There are ways of dealing with the tabloid press, as I have unfortunately had to learn by experience, and slagging off your wayward parents is NOT the dignified way forward. The sons would have done better to keep their gobs shut from the start. As things are, they've kissed their privacy goodbye.

This isn't their fault and I'm not judging them. But if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, remember that you don't HAVE to 'just give your side of the story'. ;)
 
Talking of tabloids...

New 'canoe man' in France
29/12/2007

A French "canoe man" thought to have killed himself two years ago after running up £500,000 gambling debts has been arrested.

The 56-year-old insurance company director was caught last week in Paris after using his real name to apply for a job.

Police chief Christian Wuilbaut said: "He confessed he had flown to Algeria, then returned after three months under his own name and taken low-paid jobs. When we found him he was relieved and exhausted."

The man, who has not been named, vanished after leaving his car on a cliff in Boulogne. He left a note saying he was to throw himself in the sea.
....
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/12/29/new-canoe-man-in-france-89520-20268025/

Edit: Link size reduced. P_M
 
Anyway, back to the main man:

Canoe couple face further charges

Canoeist John Darwin, who reappeared after being presumed dead, and his wife Anne, have been charged with further offences, police have said.
The couple have already been charged with dishonestly obtaining money transfer by deception and are due to face Hartlepool magistrates on Friday.

They will now also face the court on Wednesday to answer another, as yet undisclosed, deception charge.

Mr Darwin walked into a police station after being presumed dead since 2002.

He also faces a charge of making an untrue statement to procure a passport.

Declared dead

The 57-year-old disappeared from his home in March 2002 and was presumed drowned after his wrecked canoe was found.

The following year a coroner officially declared him dead.

Since her husband's disappearance Mrs Darwin has sold the family home in Seaton Carew and moved to Panama.

She was arrested at Manchester Airport when she flew back to England.

The couple's sons Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29, released a statement saying they wanted no more contact with their parents and police have said their sons are not suspects.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7177758.stm

Sad about the sons' attitude, though.
 
Full story
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7520803.stm

Canoe fraud couple sent to jail

Back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin and his wife Anne have each been jailed for more than six years for fraudulently claiming £250,000.

John Darwin, 57, was jailed for six years and three months after earlier admitting deception by faking his own death in a canoe accident.

Anne Darwin, 56, was given six and a half years for the fraud.

The judge said the couple's two sons, who were unaware their father was still alive, were the "real victims".

The couple conned sons Mark and Anthony, friends, police and insurance companies into believing Mr Darwin drowned in the North Sea off Teesside in 2002.

He reappeared at a London police station in December last year claiming he had lost his memory.

They were undone by a photograph of the grinning couple taken in Panama four years after he disappeared.

Mr Justice Wilkie, at Teesside Crown Court, said their sons, who gave evidence for the prosecution against their mother, had been left "crushed" by the deception.

He said: "Although the sums involved are not as high as some reported cases, the duration of the offending, its multi-faceted nature and, in particular, the grief inflicted over the years to those who, in truth, were the real victims, your own sons, whose lives you crushed, make this a case which merits a particularly severe sentence."

A compensation hearing to determine how the couple can pay back the £250,000 they defrauded will take place at a later date.

Anne Darwin had put forward the defence of "marital coercion" against 15 charges of money laundering and fraud, meaning her husband made her act against her will. However, the jury found her guilty...

After all those surprises, no surprise at all. And that was that.
 
<Nods>

If he hadnt insisted calling a kayak a canoe, he might have got away with it
 
The BBC said:
..Anne Darwin had put forward the defence of "marital coercion" against 15 charges of money laundering and fraud, meaning her husband made her act against her will.

A man, a peon, a canoe: Panama!

You've got to admire the "He made me do it, despite all evidence to the contrary" defence, though. And the moral of this one is: if you're a bit skint, flog some of your dozen houses, and don't appear to die then miraculously rise from the dead claiming to be amnesiac a day or two after your wife emigrates to Central America to start a new life. Fockwit.
 
stuneville said:
The BBC said:
..Anne Darwin had put forward the defence of "marital coercion" against 15 charges of money laundering and fraud, meaning her husband made her act against her will.

A man, a peon, a canoe: Panama!

You've got to admire the "He made me do it, despite all evidence to the contrary" defence, though. And the moral of this one is: if you're a bit skint, flog some of your dozen houses, and don't appear to die then miraculously rise from the dead claiming to be amnesiac a day or two after your wife emigrates to Central America to start a new life. Fockwit.

But that's what intruiges me. Why did he do it? Why turn up again?
I've heard mention of them having a row, but both ending up doing time seems to be taking the cut nose spite face thing a little far...
 
Furthermore, they could come out to absolutely nothing..

The Beeb says:
Separate bills for fraud couple

Back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin and his wife Anne are to face separate bills from lawyers seeking to recover assets following their £250,000 fraud.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has confirmed it wants £455,000 from the sale of their two Teesside homes to be included in any settlement.

The pair were each jailed for more than six years after John Darwin faked his own death in 2002.

Police will assess the couple's assets before a hearing to be held later.

John Darwin, 57, was jailed for six years and three months after earlier admitting deception by faking his own death in a canoe accident.

Anne Darwin, 56, was given six and a half years for the fraud on Wednesday.

The pair had hoped to start a new life in Panama after getting into debt.

Police believe when they were arrested last December their assets were worth at least £500,000 - the equivalent of one million US dollars in Panama.

A judge will determine how much each will have to pay back at a proceeds-of-crime hearing to be held later this year.
 
My favourite part is that he is now doomed to be known as "canoe man" or "canoeist" for the rest of his life. A fitting punishment...
 
wembley8 said:
My favourite part is that he is now doomed to be known as "canoe man" or "canoeist" for the rest of his life. A fitting punishment...

I prefer "Mr Canoehead".
 
But that's what intruiges me. Why did he do it? Why turn up again?
I've heard mention of them having a row, but both ending up doing time seems to be taking the cut nose spite face thing a little far...

I've read that they needed to re-establish his real ID in order to move abroad together legally. There was no argument, only his need to pretend to have lost his memory.
 
I think of the reasons for his disappearence might be to do with the fact that he had alot of debts owing and the insurance money and the money from the sale of the houses would cover that and leave them with some left over because his wife said to her neighbour " if this does not work out WE lose everything", now why would she say we if there was only her and she knew nothing about or of her husbands disappearence,

One of the neighbour's said that she moved suddenly didnt take much with her as it took 15 skips to clear the rubbish out the house, now why would she be in such a hurry? unless she knew what was happening and it seems really odd that this all coinsides with her husbands return.

Its also a little off that she wouldnt give her husband some kind of send off even without his body you could always do a little memorial service but she never and i dont hink it had anything to do with the fact that she could not get any peace without his body she knew he was alive and how could she lie to her own children about the death of their dad?

After the insurance money came through and the money from the sale of the two houses its suspious that she suddenly up and left to move abroad without telling anyone what she was doing, and from the neighbours statements it was clear people knew that she had something to hide and she knew more than she was letting on,

she also said "i know i might have to give back some of the insurance money it wont be easy but i will cope" she or should i say they were more concerned about getting the money for settling debts and starting afresh but this is classed as freud.

At least they got what they deserved being jailed for six years each, and the cps also want the money or at least some of the money owed form the saleof the houses, she also said he made her do it against her will so for that to happen he must of been closeby right? otherwise why didnt she just go to the police and tell them what was happening?

il tell you why she wanted the money and a debt free life as much as he did so they are both as bad as each other
 
I think you're pretty much right.

goth13girl666 said:
...his wife said to her neighbour " if this does not work out WE lose everything", now why would she say we if there was only her and she knew nothing about or of her husbands disappearence...

..she also said "i know i might have to give back some of the insurance money it wont be easy but i will cope" she or should i say they were more concerned about getting the money for settling debts and starting afresh but this is classed as freud.
Fraudian slip?

edited for clarity
 
[/quote]
I think you're pretty much right.
Fraudian slip?


I think it could possibly been a slip, might i add a very big slip.

like i said she knew all along where he was and what was going to happen
 
Canoe man John Darwin smuggles memoir out of jail
Debt-laden fraudster who faked own death for insurance and fled to Panama writes of 'Eureka moment' behind scam
Haroon Siddique
guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 August 2009 09.18 BST

John Darwin, the canoeist who faked his own death, has revealed details of his scam in a memoir smuggled out of his jail cell, it was reported today.

With the help of his wife, Anne, the former prison officer faked his own death in a canoe accident in the North Sea in 2002 to claim £250,000 insurance.

He turned up in London in December 2007 claiming to have suffered from amnesia. But a timestamped photograph surfaced of Darwin and his wife smiling in an estate agency in Panama, and it emerged that he had hidden in a next-door bedsit owned by the couple.

Extracts from a book in which the 59-year-old explains the background to the scam have been published in the Sun today, prompting anger over how he managed to sneak the manuscript out of jail.

Darwin, who is serving a six-year sentence, teamed up with a fraudster he met at Everthorpe jail in east Yorkshire who posed as his lawyer after being freed, according to the paper.

The pair were apparently able to exchange uncensored material under "rule 39", which allows for correspondence between prisoners and their legal advisers to be treated as confidential.

The Prison Service failed to carry out basic checks that would have revealed Darwin's new "lawyer" was a conman who was freed on licence earlier this year, the paper reported.
:shock: :D

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said it was "wrong for convicted criminals to profit from their crimes".

"Prisons have established processes in place for dealing with rule 39, which ensures that the confidential legal relationships between solicitors and their clients are maintained," she said. "We take any allegations that this rule is being breached very seriously and will investigate them."

In his memoir – titled The Canoe Man, Panama & Back – Darwin says he contemplated suicide in the face of overwhelming debts but realised it would not solve his financial woes and feared the effect it would have on his wife.

"The thought of losing everything was more than I could bear," he said.

"Not only would I think I was a failure in the eyes of Anne but also in the eyes of my two sons, as I would have lost the family home, lost absolutely everything that Anne and I had worked for."

He labels the point at which he hit upon the idea of staging his own death as a "Eureka moment".

"If we couldn't die, then my crazed brain reasoned, I could pretend to die. Not a job for Anne, she may fluff it completely and end up really dead! For my part, I no longer had a choice – I'd made up my mind to do it for real.

"After all, I wouldn't be the first man to kill himself because of financial pressures. The only difference in this case was that it would look like an accident.

"A suicide would be useless – the insurance company wouldn't pay out."

The police, a coroner, financial institutions and the couple's two sons, Mark and Anthony, were convinced that Darwin had drowned.

Darwin was sentenced to six years and three months in July 2008 after admitting fraud. His wife was jailed for six and a half years for fraud and money laundering.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/1 ... win-memoir
 
Canoe fraudsters to pay £600,000
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 354641.stm

Anne and John Darwin had embarked on a new life in Panama
The wife of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin has offered to return more than half a million pounds of money the couple obtained fraudulently.

Lawyers for Anne Darwin said she would pay back £591,838 made from the scam she staged with her husband John, a Proceeds of Crime hearing was told.

The pair, from Seaton Carew, Teesside, were jailed after he faked his death to claim life insurance and pension cash.

John Darwin agreed to pay a nominal sum of £1, as he has no financial assets.

The confiscation hearing started at Leeds Crown Court earlier.



From Catherine Marston at Leeds Crown Court
Anne Darwin listened intently as the prosecution explained neither she nor her husband will contest the amount of money which must be repaid.

Silent for much of the hearing, she only spoke to confirm her name.

The court proceedings had been delayed to allow a two minutes silence to be observed for Remembrance Day but once the case began it soon became clear Anne Darwin would be repaying over £591,000.

She is liable because all the assets are in her name. Her husband John will pay a nominal sum of just one pound.

The couple convinced the police, a coroner, financial institutions and even their two sons that John Darwin had drowned while canoeing in the North Sea in 2002.

However, he had been hidden away in a flat next door to his wife's home, and they later embarked on a new life in Panama.

In November 2007 he returned to the UK, telling police he was a missing person with amnesia.

Darwin, 58, was jailed in July 2008 for six years for deception, while 57-year-old Anne Darwin was jailed for six-and-a-half-years for fraud and money-laundering.

The hearing at Leeds Crown Court was told that the Darwins realisable assets totalled £591,838.25.

Prosecutor Jolyon Perks said the victims were insurance companies Aviva, formerly known as Norwich Union, and AIG, with claims also made on John Darwin's pension and a Department of Work and Pensions payout.

This totalled £363,700.01 and the Crown also sought an order under the Proceeds of Crime Act for a further £228,138.24.

Mr Perks asked for a year for the money to be repaid.

If either fails to repay they could face a three-year jail sentence.

Mrs Darwin appeared in court, but her husband was not present.
 
Canoe man tells police: Give me back my £100 or I will sue
By Paul Sims
Last updated at 12:50 AM on 31st May 2010

He faked his own death, stole £360,000 in insurance and pension payouts and then tried to make millions from his crimes by smuggling his memoirs out of prison.

And it seems that when money is involved, there is still nothing 'canoe man' John Darwin won't do.

The 60-year-old is now threatening to take the police to court if they don't return £100 they took off him during his 2007 arrest.

Darwin has written to police to claim the cash they seized when he came back from the dead in December 2007, five-and-a-half years after faking his death in a canoeing accident at sea.

If they refuse and Darwin pursues his challenge through the courts, it could cost the taxpayer thousands.

The cash is in a police bank account, but in an official claim sent from his prison cell in East Yorkshire, Darwin insists that they have no right to keep it.

A senior police source told the Daily Mail: 'It was sent to our asset recovery team and simply demands that we give him his money back. He says it is his.

'The asset recovery team intend to do everything they can to block it. After all, the £100 belongs to the money he stole from insurance firms and pension pots and under British law he cannot profit from his crimes. We are going to fight it every step of the way. If it goes to court it could cost a fortune.

'It's incredible really – he's got some nerve. Then again, this is John Darwin. Suffice to say we don't intend paying him a penny, for obvious reasons. We just can't believe the brass neck of the man.'

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0pUS6cenz
 
A more sympathetic look at the aftermath for Canoe Man:

John Darwin: 'Canoe Man' paddles back into view
John Darwin, who staged his own death, has been relased from prison.
By Neil Tweedie 10:30PM GMT 21 Jan 2011 2 Comments

Easington Colliery is an obsolete town with an obsolete name. The coalmine that gave it its purpose is long shut but the place remains, lines of drab terraces marching down to the grey North Sea.

Desolation is its chief asset. When the makers of Billy Elliot wanted the perfect 'It’s Grim Up North’ setting, they settled on Easington. The town figures prominently in tables of deprivation, and lays claim to the most obese population in the country. Pound shops rub shoulders with pubs protected by steel window shutters, the standard furniture of broken Britain. No paradise, then. Certainly not the paradise envisaged by John Darwin when he was dreaming of wealth and sunshine.

Say John Darwin in the Co-op and they hesitate, but mention Canoe Man and the lights switch on.
“Living here, is he?” says the lady at the check-out. “Well, I won’t be bothering to look out for him.”

Darwin will be pleased with that. Since his release from prison this week he has been stalked by the media, anxious to write the next chapter in his ordinary-turned-extraordinary life. Desperate not to antagonise his probation officers, he has been forced to lie low. But at some point, normal life will have to resume.

“John is in such a state at the moment,” says Paul Wager, his oldest friend. “He’s just done three years in prison and what’s freaking him out is the thought that he would have to go back because of insinuations that he is talking to the press. At the moment he is like a fox that’s gone to ground and can’t get out.”

etc....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/feature ... -view.html
 
Canoe man John Darwin's latest vanishing act: the missing Panama spoils
John and Anne Darwin, the couple jailed for the "canoe man" conspiracy, have left thousands of pounds worth of ill-gotten assets unaccounted for in Panama, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
By Jon Swaine, Panama City 7:30AM GMT 29 Jan 2011

A brand new 4x4 vehicle worth £25,000, which was parked outside their Panama home when the fraud was exposed in December 2007, has never been recovered.

Mrs Darwin, who claimed £250,000 from her husband’s life insurance and pension schemes, had access to two bank accounts in the country that were previously unknown to investigators.

The Daily Telegraph has learnt of the new details a week after Mr Darwin was released on licence from Moorland open prison in Doncaster, after serving half of his six-year sentence. Mrs Darwin is due to be freed from Askham Grange jail near York in March.

The couple, from Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, gained notoriety three years ago when Mr Darwin turned up at a police station claiming to be suffering from amnesia.
He had been declared dead after vanishing at sea in his canoe in March 2002. His wife cashed in the insurance policies and moved to Panama.

He joined her before visa problems forced him to return to Britain. All their assets were frozen in 2008 and Mrs Darwin, 59, agreed to pay back £592,000. Mr Darwin, 60, was said to be penniless and ordered to pay £1.
A list of Mrs Darwin’s assets included a flat in Panama City, now valued at £62,702, and a 480-acre plot beside the Panama Canal, worth £232,336.

It also included £157,721 in bank accounts in Britain and Jersey, which was recovered, and three HSBC accounts in Panama containing a total of £144,000. Officers in Panama agreed to help with the recovery effort, which is being led by a court-appointed receiver from Grant Thornton, the accountants.

But 14 months on, no assets in Panama have been seized. Neither of Mrs Darwin’s properties has been sold, and none of the cash has been recovered.
She is still listed as the resident of the flat on an up-to-date rota pinned in its lobby. Maria Estevez, an executive at the building’s management company, said: “Anne Darwin is the owner.”

The brand new Toyota Land Cruiser has vanished. The vehicle was bought with a £25,700 bank draft. It was registered in Mrs Darwin’s name. A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Its location is unknown. If you know where the Land Cruiser is, please tell the police.” Meanwhile a letter sent by the CPS to Panama’s prosecutor general requesting help with the inquiry, which has been seen by The Daily Telegraph, lists two additional Panamanian bank accounts.

One of these is in the name of Jaguar Properties Corp, the Panama-based front company used by Mrs Darwin to buy the two properties. After being asked repeatedly to clarify over the past week, neither the CPS nor Cleveland Police could say yesterday whether the account had been examined or may contain money.
The CPS spokesman said: “We have no information about other accounts … The confiscation order is against Anne Darwin, not Jaguar Properties.”

Lawyers for Mr and Mrs Darwin did not respond to requests for comment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... poils.html
 
The 4 x 4 was probably towed away by criminals. It's probably in another country by now.
 
Long article:

Paddling all the way to the bank: The Canoe Couple have £500,000 stashed away and the British police can't touch it
By Sue Reid
Last updated at 2:08 AM on 5th February 2011

On the dusty, pot-holed streets of a tropical town near the Panama Canal and Caribbean sea, they wait for news of the British couple who walked out of their lives three years ago.

‘They went away, but we will welcome them back. We hope to see Mr and Mrs Darwin very soon,’ said Mayor Senor Jaime Luna this week, sitting behind his rickety wooden desk in the one-room town hall.
‘We thought the Darwins were good people. We trusted them and still do. If they have done something wrong in Britain they must be punished there. But they’ve done nothing wrong here.’

He then guided me around his town, where stray dogs lay panting in the heat and a local proudly showed me a scorpion he’d caught.

It is here in poverty-stricken Escobal, 70 miles from Panama City, in a wild landscape dotted with banana trees and coconut groves that the so-called ‘canoe couple’ planned a grandiose scheme to build a holiday park and boating centre.

No one in Panama knew the ­Darwins had raised the £200,000 to buy the 500-acre plot of land from an elaborate hoax and insurance scam.

John, a former bank official and teacher, faked his own death in 2002 by pretending to have drowned in his red canoe in the North Sea.
His wife, Anne, a doctor’s ­receptionist, fraudulently collected nearly £680,000 in life insurance and pension payouts.

British authorities were left to chase the money from the couple’s ill-gotten gains to pay back the insurance companies and pension funds the couple had defrauded

...

Now it has emerged that just £157,720, a fraction of the stolen sum, has been recovered - and the money trail from Britain to Panama has as many twists and turns as the fake canoe story.

Last month, 60-year-old John was freed from Moorland open prison in Doncaster. Today, he lives on ­benefits in a bedsit in Easington, Co. Durham. Anne will be released on probation from a women’s jail in York in three weeks.

Meanwhile, after a three-year search for their assets - which are all in Mrs Darwin’s name because officially her husband was dead - the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been stymied by ­Panama’s banking laws and a ­mystery ­company founded by the couple to avoid the money being tracked down.

This week, the CPS admitted it has failed to confiscate the plot of land in Escobal, today worth £232,335.
Nor have they taken the Darwins’ two-bedroom apartment in El Dorado, a middle-class suburb of Panama City, valued at £62,705. That’s £20,000 more than what they paid for it five years ago.
Also still missing is the £144,000 stashed away in three bank accounts at a Panamanian branch of HSBC, just across the road from the ­Darwins’ El Dorado apartment.

And those are just the properties and cash that are known about. The truth is that there could be other houses, plots of land and bank accounts that the Darwins own in Panama, which will never be found.

‘We are still pursuing the assets so Mrs Darwin does not benefit from her criminal behaviour,’ a CPS spokesman told the Mail this week.
He revealed that a Toyota Land Cruiser, worth £25,000 and registered in Mrs Darwin’s name, had suddenly gone missing in Panama.
Until earlier this year, it was in the secure car park at the couple’s empty apartment.
‘We are appealing for anyone who knows the vehicle’s location to come forward,’ said the CPS spokesman.
In Panama, that’s as likely as pigs flying over the skyscrapers of the city’s ­flourishing financial district.

The country lies at the crossroads of North and South America. ­Visitors are attracted by its sunny ­climate, but it’s also one of the world’s most popular tax havens, luring foreigners with big bank ­balances who can tuck away funds safely and secretly.

To maintain secrecy and attract investment, the Panamanian ­government allows numbered bank accounts with no names attached.

There are fines of £5,000 with a six-month jail penalty for anyone - including bank officials and lawyers - who discloses information about such bank accounts. No wonder that the tiny nation caught the eye of the ­Darwins, who were living in a modest house near Hartlepool.

etc...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ch-it.html
 
I hope this doesn't make me a bad person (or at least, worse) but a tiny, weeny part of my brain actually slightly admires that...

Maybe it's just because of the twists. Bonkers crime, got away with it. Moment of madness, get caught. Squabble about who did what and consented or didn't etc etc. Both go down for it, TPTB assert no-one can profit from such a scheme.

And then...
 
Baby's brother seeks John Darwin apology over false ID

The brother of a dead baby whose identity was stolen by back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin has vowed to pursue the fraudster for an apology.
Darwin, who faked his own death in 2002, has complained to police of harassment by the family of John Jones, who died aged 34 days in 1950.

But Alf Jones, 54, has denied harassing Darwin, claiming he had only written a letter demanding an apology.
Mr Jones, from Sunderland, said Darwin had "deeply hurt" his family.

Darwin, who staged his own death in the North Sea off Seaton Carew near Hartlepool before fleeing to Panama, has been living in Easington Colliery, County Durham, since his release from prison in January.
He and his wife Anne were jailed in 2008 for fraud and deception after claiming £250,000 in insurance and pension cash.

Darwin came across the grave of the dead baby, who is buried in Sunderland Cemetery in Grangetown, while searching for names for his fake identity.
Construction worker Mr Jones, who has four sisters and two brothers, said he "wanted answers" from Darwin.
He said he had discovered Darwin's address and had left a letter demanding a meeting.
He said: "I need answers as to why he did this to my family and he is the only one who can give them.
"He has got to be a man and face up to what he did to us. He cannot say this is a victimless crime.

"I know the area where he is living and I left a letter for him asking to meet. But the police have told me he won't do it.
"I won't give up. I and my family need closure and an apology for what he did."

A Durham Police spokeswoman said: "We can confirm we have received a complaint of harassment of a man from the Easington Colliery area.
"Initial inquiries suggest no offence has been committed at this time."
Darwin also turned down a request to talk to the Jones family as part of the Restorative Justice scheme, where offenders meet victims.

He was jailed for six years and three months on seven charges of deception.
His wife Anne was jailed for six-and-a-half years for six counts of fraud and nine of money laundering.
Both have been released on licence. They no longer live together.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13221247
 
What canoe man did next:

Canoe fraudster John Darwin faces return to jail after trip to find new wife in Ukraine
The 63-year-old had travelled to the Ukraine and was photographed last month by the Sun newspaper on a date with a statuesque local woman who was wearing a mini-skirt
By News agencies
7:43AM GMT 17 Dec 2013

Back-from-the-dead canoe fraudster John Darwin will be behind bars this Christmas after he was arrested on his return from an unauthorised trip abroad to find a new wife.
The 63-year-old had travelled to the Ukraine and was photographed last month by the Sun newspaper on a date with a local woman who was wearing a mini-skirt.

The 1,500-mile journey from his home in Hartlepool to the town of Sumy was undertaken without the permission of the Probation Service.
He needed its authority to travel because he was still on licence after being sentenced to six years and three months for fraud.
He was released from jail in January 2011, but was required to stick to certain conditions, including not leaving the UK.
He was arrested yesterday at Newcastle Airport as he flew back to Britain, without a new wife.

A source close to the case indicated that Darwin would be required to complete the rest of his sentence behind bars when the authorities caught up with him. It is thought he will not be free again until October.
According to reports last month, Darwin and his date, a Ukrainian woman named Anna, enjoyed a two-hour meal assisted by a translator, but the evening was ruined when he was confronted by a reporter.
It was believed Darwin first made contact with the woman over the internet.

Darwin faked his own death in a canoeing accident in 2002 so his then-wife Anne could claim hundreds of thousands of pounds from insurance policies and pension schemes.
The couple, from Seaton Carew, were jailed at Teesside Crown Court in 2008 for the swindle, which deceived the police, a coroner, financial institutions and even their sons, Mark and Anthony.

After faking his own death, Darwin continued to live in secret with his wife before they escaped to Panama to start a new life.
But in December 2007 Darwin walked into a London police station, claiming he had amnesia, and was reunited with his stunned sons.
His wife, then still in Panama, initially also claimed to be surprised - until a photograph emerged of them posing together. :roll:

Darwin admitted fraud so received a slightly shorter sentence than Anne, who denied the offences. They have now divorced.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... raine.html
 
The 63-year-old had travelled to the Ukraine and was photographed last month by the Sun newspaper on a date with a local woman who was wearing a mini-skirt.

Pity the rules on profiting from crime (or harassment for that matter) don't apply to them too.
 
Fake death conman John Darwin 'has repaid just £121'
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tees-26937700

John Darwin leaving Teesside Crown Court

Darwin made a brief appearance at Teesside Crown Court

Convicted canoe death fraudster John Darwin has repaid just £121 of a £679,000 proceeds of crime order, a court has heard.

Darwin, 63, of Seaton Carew, Teesside, faked his own death in 2002 so his then-wife Anne could claim £500,000.

He served three years of a six-year jail term for insurance fraud.

Teesside Crown Court heard he may now have to use a recently matured pension to repay the cash he cheated out of insurance companies.

The father of two appeared in court after police began fresh proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

A judge had previously ordered he should repay £679,073, but the court was told divorced Darwin, who is claiming benefits, has only been able to hand back £121.

The Crown has now applied for him to repay more, as a pension has matured. A hearing to decide the matter will be held in May.

Panama photograph
Darwin did not speak during the brief hearing before Judge Howard Crowson.

Anne Darwin, now split from her husband, has repaid more than £500,000 under a separate Proceeds of Crime order.

John Darwin was reported missing in a canoe in the North Sea in March 2002.

His wife collected more than £500,000 in life insurance payouts, while he hid in their home, leaving their two sons believing he was dead.

In December 2007, he walked into a London police station, claiming he had amnesia, and was reunited with his sons who were stunned to hear he was alive.

His wife, who had fled with him to Panama, pretended to be shocked until a photograph emerged of them posing together after his supposed death.

John and Anne Darwin photographed for the Move to Panama website
John and Anne Darwin were infamously photographed in Panama in 2006
She was later jailed for six-and-a-half-years for fraud and money-laundering.

Earlier this year police said John Darwin was being investigated again under the Proceeds of Crime Act regarding possible "undeclared assets".

After the pair were jailed, assets including a fourth-floor apartment in Panama City and an overgrown plot of land near the artificial Lake Gatun were seized and sold.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was granted a confiscation order to retrieve the money Mrs Darwin received from her insurance companies and pension funds.

All the money held in accounts in the UK and Panama, which totalled about £9,000, was also seized.
 
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