Police are consulting the Crown Prosecution Service over charging a canoeist who was presumed drowned in 2002 but reappeared this month.
Police have charged a canoeist who was presumed drowned in 2002 but reappeared this month with two offences.
John Darwin, 57, vanished from the Hartlepool area in March 2002.
John Darwin, 57, vanished from the Hartlepool area in March 2002, but walked into a police station on 1 December, claiming amnesia.
However, he walked into a police station on 1 December, claiming amnesia, but faced police questioning about fraud four days later.
He was charged with obtaining a money transfer by deception and making an untrue statement to obtain a passport.
Cleveland Police are due to make a statement at about 1700GMT. They have until 2330GMT to hold Mr Darwin.
Cleveland police said he will remain in custody until he appears at Hartlepool Magistrates' Court on Monday.
Police also want to speak to his wife Anne, 55, who has said that Mr Darwin lived in the family home for three years after being declared dead.
Panama
She said her husband hid in a bedsit in a house they owned next door when family or friends visited to prevent them discovering the truth.
Mr Darwin was declared dead by the Hartlepool coroner in 2003.
She has been living in Panama recently, having sold the family home in Seaton Carew six weeks ago.
Police also want to speak to his wife Anne, 55.
She is thought to be in Miami but expected to return to the UK this weekend.
'Hid in bedsit'
Mrs Darwin told reporters her husband plotted his disappearance to escape debts "in the tens of thousands".
Anne Darwin said her husband hid in another part of the house
"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," she said.
Mrs Darwin maintains she did not know he had gone ahead with the scam until he turned up on her doorstep in Seaton Carew 11 months after going missing, looking like he had been "living rough".
She claimed he threatened to say she was involved from the start if she reported him.
They were tortured. And yes, it was hard to keep up the front. I so wanted to tell them but I was in too deep Anne Darwin
"He lived at the house with me for three years. We lived as man and wife," she added.
Mr Darwin was declared dead by a coroner in 2003.
Mrs Darwin has previously said she claimed on his life insurance "in good faith" but has now told reporters she knew he was alive before the pay out.
'Missed sons'
She said he lived with her in the main family home most of the time and hid in a small bedsit in a house they owned next door when guests or their two sons, Anthony and Mark, visited.
"They were tortured. And yes, it was hard to keep up the front. I so wanted to tell them but I was in too deep, how could I possibly explain to them that I'd known their father was alive?" she told journalists.
Both sons have said they want nothing more to do with their mother or father.
They insist they did not know their father was alive and say they are furious at being made the victims of what they describe as a "large scam".
Mr and Mrs Darwin later bought an apartment in Panama and she moved there seven weeks ago after selling up in England. But he had to come back because he could not remain without a visa and missed their sons, according to reports.
Police say they have received calls from "all over the world" after appealing for information about Mr Darwin.
