"Fake-death" canoe couple jailed

By Luke Baker

LONDON (Reuters) - A woman who helped fake her husband's death in a canoeing accident was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison on Wednesday for her part in a daring scam that deceived even the couple's children.

Anne Darwin, 56, was found guilty of 15 counts of fraud and money laundering following a week-long trial that revealed the lengths the couple had gone to to secure more than 250,000 pounds in insurance and pension payouts.

Her husband John, 57, who disappeared after going canoeing in 2002 and was later declared dead, only to turn up five years later, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing. He was sentenced to six years and three months for his role.

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.

The case of the "back-from-the-dead" canoeist has transfixed Britain since it emerged last December, its fascination matched only by its complexity and the brazenness of the perpetrators.

John Darwin disappeared in March 2002 after paddling out to sea one morning from his home on England's northeast coast. After a three-week police search, the battered remains of his red canoe were found and a coroner declared Darwin dead.

But five years later the former prison officer walked into a police station claiming to have had amnesia since 2000.

PANAMA SUNSHINE