Fraudster applies for money police 'stole from him'

London: He faked his own death, stole £360,000 (Dh1.91 million) in insurance and pension payouts, and tried to make millions from his crimes by smuggling his memoirs out of prison.

And it seems that when money is involved, there is still nothing "canoe man" John Darwin won't do.

The 60-year-old is now threatening to take the police to court if they don't return £100 he said they took from him during his 2007 arrest.

Darwin has written to police to claim the cash he said they seized in December 2007, five-and-a-half years after he faked his death in a canoeing accident at sea.

If they refuse and Darwin pursues his challenge through the courts, it could cost the taxpayer thousands.

The cash is in a police bank account, but in an official claim sent from his prison cell in East Yorkshire, Darwin insisted they had no right to keep it.

A senior police source told the Daily Mail: "The asset recovery team intend to do everything they can to block it".

"After all, the £100 belongs to the money he stole from insurance firms and pension pots and under British law he cannot profit from his crimes."

Former prison officer Darwin and his wife Anne, 57, were on the verge of bankruptcy when he hatched the plot to fake his death in 2002.

The couple from Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, tricked the police, a coroner, and even their sons — Mark, 35, and Anthony, 32 — into believing Darwin was dead after an apparent canoe tragedy at sea.

Darwin obtained a passport in the name of a dead baby and lived secretly in a bedsit adjoining the family home while the couple plotted to emigrate and start afresh.