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Death-faking canoeist appeals against jail term
John Darwin, jailed for faking his death in a canoeing accident so his wife could claim on his life insurance, appealed against his sentence on Friday.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:12 September 5, 2008
London: John Darwin, jailed for faking his death in a canoeing accident so his wife could claim on his life insurance, appealed against his sentence on Friday.
Darwin, 58, was sentenced to six years and three months imprisonment at Teesside Crown Court in July after pleading guilty to obtaining cash by deception.
His solicitor John Nixon said Darwin had applied to the Appeal Court for the right to challenge the sentence.
His wife Anne has already launched an appeal against her conviction and her six and a half year sentence.
She was found guilty of fraud and money laundering following a week-long trial that revealed the lengths the couple had taken to secure more than £250,000 (Dh1,62 million) in insurance and pension payouts.
The ordinary-looking couple not only deceived friends but betrayed their two grown children in an effort to pull off the swindle. The sons turned against their mother at her trial, giving evidence on behalf of the prosecution.
Darwin disappeared in March 2002 after paddling out to sea one morning from his home on England's northeast coast.
He was eventually declared dead after the battered remains of his red canoe were found.
But Darwin was alive. His 56-year-old wife later picked him up from the beach, smuggled him inland and told emergency services he was lost at sea.
After some time living away, Darwin moved back to the family home and lived in secret in a bedsit, posing as a handyman if visitors called.
Flat in Panama
He later obtained a passport under a false name and moved to Panama, where his wife joined him last year. They bought a flat and land there - which they hoped to transform into a canoeing centre - and planned to live out their days in the sunshine with relative wealth.
The plan unravelled when Darwin re-emerged in London, walking into a police station claiming he had been suffering from amnesia.
Anne Darwin initially claimed to be shocked by her husband's "reappearance," but her story was revealed to be a lie when a photograph surfaced showing the couple posing in Panama in 2006.
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