In early 2002 , a British man in his early 50s named John Darwin , went canoeing off a beach in Seaton Carew , UK . He mysteriously disappeared and his canoe was washed up the next day . But there was no sign of a body

JULY 2006

Say cheese !

Bored of living in hiding and keen to spend his insurance windfall , John and Anne fly from Newcastle to Panama where they are inadvertently photographed by a property agent who is showing them an apartment they ’ re considering buying . But the picture blows open the scam after it is printed in a national newspaper following Darwin ’ s secret return to the UK .

DECEMBER 2007 TO MARCH 2008

Gotcha !

On December 1 , 2007 , John Darwin walks into a central London police station claiming to have amnesia and telling police , “ I think I ’ m a missing person ”. His two sons are shocked at his return , believing he is dead .

By March 2008 , Darwin pleaded guilty to seven charges of obtaining cash by deception and a passport offence . Anne Darwin denies nine charges of using criminal property and six charges of deception .

2011-2022

Crime doesn ’ t pay

John is jailed for six years for fraud . Anne Darwin is imprisoned for 6.5 years after being found guilty of deception and money laundering . The pair are ordered to pay back a total of £ 679.073 . However , today , much of the money remains unpaid , and the couple are divorced . John Darwin now lives in the Philippines with his second wife , where he runs a t-shirt market stall and claims his UK pension .

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