British Jury Convicts Wife of Man Who Faked Death for Insurance

The wife of a man who faked his own drowning death in a 250,000-pound (US $500,000) insurance scam was convicted of fraud in Britain this week.

A jury found Anne Darwin guilty of six counts of fraud and nine counts of money laundering after a seven-day trial at a court in northern England.

Darwin, 56, acknowledged that she had helped her husband John stage his death in an apparent canoe accident in 2002 to collect pension and insurance payments. But she insisted she had been coerced.

John Darwin was declared dead in 2003, the year after he was reported missing after going for a paddle in the North Sea near his home in northeast England.

Prosecutors said the couple kept the truth that he was alive secret even from their two adult sons while they planned to start a new life together in Panama. The plot began to unravel last December when Darwin walked into a London police station claiming to have amnesia.

John Darwin, 57, pleaded guilty in March to deception and fraud. The couple will be sentenced later.