Guilty … Anne Darwin

CANOE wife Anne Darwin has been jailed for six and half years after she was found guilty of being in on her husband’s £250,000 fake death scam.

Her husband John who staged his own death but pleaded guilty to the fraud was jailed for six years and three months.

Anne Darwin, 56, was convicted by a jury at Teesside Crown Court of six counts of fraud and nine of money laundering today.

The couple tricked the police, insurance companies and even their two sons Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29, into believing he drowned in the North Sea in 2002 - only for Mr Darwin to turn up at a London police station last year.

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

She had claimed she was forced to take part by domineering hubby John, 57.

Her defence of “marital coercion” was undermined when the prosecution produced emails they sent each other and a jury at Teesside Crown Court convicted her of fraud and money laundering charges.

Mr Justice Wilkie said the “real victims” of the Darwins were their sons.

He told the couple: “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.”

Speaking outside the court, Detective Inspector Andy Greenwood branded Anne a "compulsive liar" and said the motivation behind the case was pure greed.

Click on the links, right, to see video of the Darwins arriving separately for police questioning.

"I am pleased the truth has come out," he continued.

"To put somebody’s sons - together with their friends - through all that turmoil is absolutely appalling."

They were drowning under £500,000 of debt in 2002 when John came up with the crazy plan of faking his own death.

Anne went along with it, helping to hide him and then writing a string of letters to claim on death policies.

When the money was paid they began planning a new life abroad and eventually moved to Panama.

But their scam was rumbled when John returned home last December and walked into a London police station saying he was a missing person.

He claimed to be suffering from amnesia but police had for some months been investigating the possibility that Darwin was alive.

They had been tipped off by someone close to Anne Darwin that she was acting oddly - taking foreign holidays, having whispered phone calls at work and planning to sell up and move to Panama.

Financial investigators were also looking into her finances - particularly the large sums of money she was transferring abroad.

Det Insp Greenwood said the tip off came from someone who sensed something was wrong.

“They had concerns over the way Anne was behaving following the disappearance of her husband.

“They also thought it was strange that Anne - the quiet housewife - started travelling around the world as she had not been one for holidays abroad.

“There were suspicions at the time that Anne was acting strangely when John disappeared but they were never given to us.”

John Darwin hoped if that by paying back the money he would escape prosecution and by claiming to have lost his memory he thought his sons would welcome him back.

Any admission of guilt would mean his beloved boys would disown him.

But within days a damning photo of the couple smiling in an estate agent’s office in Panama had been published, destroying John’s cover story.

Anne Darwin showed no reaction as the jury foreman delivered the verdicts after four hours of deliberation.

Mark Darwin sat in the public gallery with his brother Anthony as the verdicts were read out in a silent courtroom.

Neither of the sons reacted to the guilty verdicts.

John earlier pleaded guilty to fraud charges and obtaining a passport by deception. Money laundering charges against him were ordered to lie on file.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it would ensure that all profits from the “callous and calculated” fraud were confiscated.

Gerry Wareham, chief prosecutor for the CPS in Cleveland, said: “The plot was carefully calculated to deceive the authorities, family and friends, including their own sons, who were led to believe for several years that their father was dead.

“It is clear from the verdict that the jury believe she is as much to blame as her husband.”

Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/justice/article1456263.ece