Moment Canoe wife Anne Darwin’s elaborate life insurance scam unravelled… as journalist calls with picture of the couple living happily in Panama
Canoe conman John Darwin's wife has revealed her horror at discovering the couple's elaborate fraud scam had been found out
CANOE conman John Darwin's wife has revealed her horror at discovering the couple's elaborate fraud scam had been found out.
Anne Darwin said the "years of lying came tumbling around [their] ears" when an Evening Gazette reporter called her to say: "The game's up, Anne."
The couple's twisted plot was discovered when a media storm picked up around John Darwin's sudden "amnesiac" reappearance - FIVE years after he had allegedly died in a canoe accident
John turned up at a central London police station on December 1, 2007 - apparently confused and asking where his wife, children and Rottweiler dogs were.
He told officers: "I think I might be a missing person. My name's John Darwin. I'm from Seaton Carew."
What police didn't know is the dad-of-two had been living happily with his wife in Panama for five years after faking his own to death to cash in his life insurance and pay off debts.
But when new rules were introduced by the Panamian government, John was forced to take his big lie one step further.
The new laws meant John, who was living under the fake name John Jones, could not stay in the country as a foreign national unless he could produce a letter from his local police force back home proving he was of good character.
As John Jones didn't exist - and John Darwin was assumed dead in 2010 - the conman felt he had no choice but to turn up back in the UK, pretending he had forgotten his identity for the past five years.
![Anne's two sons Mark and Michael [pictured] called her to say their dad had turned up - which of course Anne already knew](http://mcb777.fun/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/nintchdbpict0000040995171.jpg?w=960)
, Anne says: "Somehow I didn’t think for a moment he would get away with it, but when he asked me to come up with something better, I couldn’t.
"We talked about what he’d say to the police, although in truth he had little regard for what they thought."
Metropolitan Police officers were soon stunned to discover John Darwin was not missing, but dead.
Anne says officers called Hartlepool Police to shed some light on the case, saying: "He thinks it's still June and asked why all the Christmas decorations are up."
John's son Mark was called to the station from a wedding in Balham, and his younger son Michael was broken the news at his home in Basingstoke, Hampshire.
Both sons feared the news was a cruel hoax - but were stunned to be reunited with their long-lost dad at the station.
They called their mum to break the news, which Anne described as "a very strange conversation".
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After her sons explained their dad was confused and suffering from memory-loss, they asked when she would be returning to see him.
The boys were confused when their mum said she could not return to the UK just yet due to visa problems - but did not read into it too much.
John was released and sent to stay with Michael in Hampshire and Mark returned to London with his girlfriend, Flick.
Anne explains: "As far as the police were concerned, John was free to go. He wasn't a wanted man, and although it was certainly a strange old case, there was nothing to stop him leaving with the boys.
"Officers said they would be in touch the next day and advised them to keep very close to their father."
The following evening Simon Walton, a reporter for the Evening Gazette, was told a news by the duty inspector at Cleveland Police as he made his final round of evening calls.
Simon remembered covering the story when he was a junior reporter in Hartlepool - and it was front page news of the Middlesbrough-based paper the following day.
National media picked up the story - and suddenly all the press and the public wanted to know was what had happened to John over those five years, and where was his wife?
Anne says: "The media interest was something John and I simply hadn't bargained for. How naive we had been.
The hunted woman was eventually tracked down in Panama by David Leigh, a reporter for the same local paper.
He had found a photo of the couple grinning with an estate agent - taken at the time John had allegedly been suffering from amnesia.
Anne said: "'I've got a photograph to show you,' he said, 'and I'm afraid it's not going to be very easy for you.'
"It was, of course, the photograph of John and me with the estate agent Mario Vilar, taken in Panama the summer before last.
"'The game's up, Anne,' he said. 'I'm sorry. We know you've been lying."
Anne was arrested as her plane touched down in Manchester and later charged with fraud.
Both she and John were sentenced to six years in prison for the scam.
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