18 July 2015

Darwin Restitution

The UK Crown Prosecution Service has announced that it has recovered £40,000 from John Darwin, who attracted attention by faking his own death in one of the more colourful insurance frauds.

Darwin was found guilty of deception in 2008, having been reported missing in a canoe in the sea off Seaton Carew in March 2002. (Selected similar scams are noted here.) "Meanwhile, his wife collected hundreds of thousands of pounds in life insurance payouts, with John Darwin hiding in the marital home".

 The CPS comments that
The recent payment of £40,000 brings the total amount paid in confiscation orders by the Darwins to £541,762 and 39 pence. The £40,000 was paid on 28 July 2014 from John Darwin's pension, which he had deferred until the same time his licence preventing him for leaving the country was about to run out. 
Following his conviction, the court found that John Darwin had benefited by £679,194.62, but having pretended to be dead, all assets were in his wife's name. The court therefore made an order for £1 allowing the CPS to amend the order should any assets, such as this pension, become available. 
The Darwins now have no known assets remaining for confiscation.