"Back-from-the-dead" canoeist John Darwin is staying with a friend in a former mining town close to where he grew up, after being released from prison, sources said today.
The disgraced former British prison officer is staying in Easington, Co Durham, 13 miles from Seaton Carew where he disappeared in 2002, according to an insider. “He is living with a family friend,” the source said. “Where he is staying has been pre-arranged.”
A former neighbour in Seaton Carew said the notorious fraudster had been spotted walking a dog on the beach where he faked his death.
The cheeky message “John woz ere” was scrawled in the paint-covered front window of the Darwins’s former home, which was being renovated. The imposing seafront property was sold to help fund the couple’s planned escape to Panama.
Darwin was sentenced to six years and three months behind bars in July 2008 after admitting faking his own death in a canoeing accident to allow his wife Anne to make fraudulent insurance and pension claims. The 60-year-old walked free from Moorland open prison in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, after serving less than half his sentence.
A probation service spokesman said: “All offenders subject to probation supervision on release from prison have to adhere to a set of strict conditions.
Cleveland Police said they would take steps to ensure that Darwin does not cash in on his infamy. A spokeswoman said: “Should Mr Darwin be seen to benefit from his activity then the option is there for Cleveland Police to revisit his case and reassess his assets, which could then be seized.
“We can also confirm that some of the money has been recovered and efforts are ongoing with other agencies to try to recover the remainder.”
The couple’s plan to hoax insurers and pension schemes into believing Mr Darwin was dead was hatched as the couple faced losing their imposing seafront home in Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, in 2002.
They had a 12-home property portfolio and were struggling to make mortgage repayments when he paddled into the sea in his home-made canoe and then disappeared.
His wife raised the alarm after driving to Durham police station, sparking a huge search, then played her grieving widow role with aplomb. Her sons were tearfully told the tragic news and she walked round in a daze for weeks.
The former doctor’s receptionist then began the process of declaring her husband dead and conning insurers and pension funds out of £250,000. He came home after repeatedly phoning her in tears, and lived in secret in a room in the bedsit the couple owned next door to the family home.
Under the assumed identity John Jones, taken from a local child who died in infancy, Darwin continued to run the couple’s finances and travelled around the world planning a new life for them.
In October 2007 Anne Darwin settled her affairs in the United Kingdom, having sold off the family’s property portfolio, and emigrated to Panama, where she joined her husband.
Cash was transferred via the Channel Islands and the houses that the couple were in danger of losing as they crept close to bankruptcy in 2002 were turned into assets worth £500,000.
They bought a flat and land in the Panama countryside which they hoped to transform into a canoeing centre focusing on eco-tourism.
But then Darwin flew back to the UK and handed himself in to a central London police station, claiming he suffered amnesia and could remember nothing since2000.
His wife, still in Panama, was tracked down by a journalist and pretended to be shocked at the back-from-the-dead miracle. But her story collapsed when a photograph was found on the internet showing the smiling couple posing in a Panama estate agents.
Her defence of “marital coercion” was later undermined when the prosecution in her trial produced loving emails the couple sent each other.
PA