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British Couple Accused of Staging Death

AP
Posted: 2007-12-09 15:37:20
Filed Under: World News, Crime News
LONDON (Dec. 9) - A woman whose husband is accused of faking his own death in an insurance scam was arrested Saturday on suspicion of fraud, police said.

Anne Darwin was arrested at Manchester's airport shortly after arriving from Atlanta, Ga., police said. She had been living in Panama but left that country Wednesday.

Her husband, John Darwin, walked into a London police station last week claiming to have amnesia five years after he was believed to have disappeared at sea. He was charged on Saturday with life insurance fraud and lying to get a false passport, and was to appear in court Monday.

Police say he masterminded an elaborate fraud to pay off family debts.

Two British newspapers reported Saturday that Darwin spent much of the last five years hiding in a small room tucked behind a closet at his home in northeastern England.

Anne Darwin said the couple had tens of thousands of dollars of debts because of the failure of their apartment rental business, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror newspapers said.

"John said there was only one way out of the situation, and that was to fake his death. I pleaded with him not to do it, I said it was the wrong thing to do," the newspapers quoted her as saying.

The newspapers said Anne Darwin said had not expected her husband to go through with the plan and genuinely thought he was dead when he disappeared in an apparent canoeing accident. But a year later, her husband came knocking at her door, she was quoted as saying.

She said her husband pressured her to keep his reappearance a secret so he could have himself declared dead, the newspapers said. That would allow her to collect $50,000 in life insurance and lift the burden of her mortgage.

After authorities officially declared him dead, John Darwin moved in with her and hid in a small room reached through a hole in the wardrobe, the papers said. She said the two moved to Panama this year and that her husband was tired of hiding and decided to return to Britain.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-12-08 11:39:19
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376 comments

Chicasjc 03:07:00 PM Dec 10 2007

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why cant they just work like the rest of us LAZY

Chicasjc 03:06:00 PM Dec 10 2007

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why cant they just work like the rest of us LAZY

Mflint1127 10:05:24 AM Dec 10 2007

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all that for 25,000 quid lol

DBoiani 09:41:46 AM Dec 10 2007

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what a hag

DBoiani 09:41:01 AM Dec 10 2007

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What an unbelievable scam. Sounds like a Simpsons episode. Hey, I think I've seen this woman before on wivesofamnesiacfraudsters.com...

Maryr821 09:17:00 AM Dec 10 2007

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WHAT SELF CENTER PEOPLE - I FEEL FOR THEIR CHILDREN

Lie beral Morons 08:28:01 AM Dec 10 2007

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THEY SHOULD HAVE JUST MOVED TO PANAMA AND RETIRED. HE WOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN SEEN AGAIN EXCEPT BY RELATIVES

FabnRoll 05:42:58 AM Dec 10 2007

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Too bad this scenario had happened at all. I wonder if they had tried to re-negotiate their mortgage? In a way I feel bad for the wife. However, she was not too smart for allowing her husband to pressure her becoming an accessory to the crime. Had she gone to the authorities in the first place things could have turned out very differently.

Cwolftracer 05:32:41 AM Dec 10 2007

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All is, yet not revealled

Cwolftracer 05:32:08 AM Dec 10 2007

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All is, yet not revealled

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