Move to claw back canoeist's cash

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/tees/8059875.stm

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Moves are being made to claim back £250,000 fraudulently obtained by the back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin and his wife Anne.

The couple, from Seaton Carew on Teesside, were jailed in July 2008 for a sophisticated scam in which Darwin faked his own death in 2002.

The judge at Newcastle Crown Court has now ruled that the couple will face a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.

It will take place at Leeds Crown Court on 11 November.

Mr Justice Wilkie, who presided over the original trial, said the case had been "dragging on inordinately."

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

They made fraudulent life insurance and pension claims and went on to start a new life in Panama.

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

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