Canoeist's Wife Guilty of Fraud
UK court finds Ann Darwin guilty of fraud and money laundering.
LONDON, July 23, 2008— -- A British jury on Wednesday convicted the wife of a man whofaked his own death in a 250,000-pound (US$500,000) insurance scam.
Anne Darwin was found guilty of six counts of fraud and nine counts ofmoney laundering after a seven-day trial at a court in northern England.
Darwin, 56, acknowledged that she had helped her husband John stage hisdeath in an apparent canoe accident in 2002 to collect pension and insurancepayments. But she insisted she had been coerced.
John Darwin was declared dead in 2003, the year after he was reportedmissing after going for a paddle in the North Sea near his home in northeastEngland.
Prosecutors said the couple kept the truth that he was alive secret evenfrom their two adult sons while they planned to start a new life together inPanama. The plot began to unravel last December when Darwin walked into aLondon police station claiming to have amnesia.
John Darwin, 57, pleaded guilty in March to deception and fraud. Thecouple will be sentenced later Wednesday.
