Wife of John Darwin freed after serving almost half of her sentence for fraud and money laundering

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

Anne Darwin, the wife of the canoeist who faked his death, has been released from jail.

Darwin was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison in July 2008 after a jury found her guilty on six counts of fraud and nine of money laundering.

She was released from Askham Grange prison, near York, after serving almost two years and eight months. A car was seen driving out of the main gates of the prison at 6.45am on Wednesday.

Her husband, John, who was jailed for six years and three months after admitting seven charges of deception, was released in January.

The former prison officer admitted faking his own death in a canoeing accident to allow his wife to make fraudulent insurance and pension claims.

The couple, from Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, embarked on a new life in Panama after Darwin faked his death in March 2002 by vanishing off the coast.

The Darwins were jailed after Teesside crown court heard how they deceived the police, a coroner, financial institutions and even their sons Mark and Anthony. Their plan to trick insurers and pension schemes into believing Mr Darwin was dead was hatched as they faced losing their seafront home.

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 apparently disappeared. His wife raised the alarm after driving to Durham police station, sparking a massive rescue operation.

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 a 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.

But, apparently forced by a change in visa laws in Panama, Darwin flew back to the UK in 2007 and handed himself in to a central London police station, claiming he suffered amnesia and could remember nothing since 2000.

His wife, still in Panama, was tracked down by a journalist and pretended to be shocked at the supposed back-from-the-dead miracle. However, her story collapsed when a photograph was found on the internet showing the smiling couple posing in the offices of 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.