Buzzin Disgrace

The British couple, dubbed the ‘Canoe Couple’  who hatched an elaborate plan to fake the husbands death in order to claim a sizeable life insurance sum will be freed from their prison sentences this week to continue their lives.

The husband John Darwin is already free and living on benefits in Co.Durham, while wife Ann will leave prison in a couple of weeks.

But the Daily Mail reports that British authorities charged with reclaiming the couples assets in order to repay the insurance company, have recovered just £157,000 of the estimated £680,000 paid out in insurance and pension benefits.

The three year search for assets has been stymied by banking laws in Panama, the city that they chose to start a new life with their ill gotten gains. It has also found that a mystery company was set up by the Darwin’s in a bid to avoid much of the money being traced.

The couple were obviously attracted to Panama not just for its climate, but moreover for its popularity as one of the worlds most popular tax havens where foreigners with big bank balances can deposit their cash safely and secretly with absolute anonymity.

Abiding by their own set of rules the authorities in Panama have offered little if any help in securing the assets of the Darwins and the British CPS has already failed in a bid to confiscate a plot of land bought by the Darwins and now worth around £232,000.

They have also failed in their attempts at confiscating the couples apartment home in El Dorado which has a value in excess of £62,000.

And they have had absolutely no luck with the Panama branch of HSBC, where the couple allegedly have a sum £144,000 across three separate accounts.

It seems that no legal action by Britain can begin to retreive the money or assets in Panama if there are no Panamanian victims.

The detective who led the initial inquiry into the Darwin’s double life has suggested that no-one will ever know exactly how much money or property the couple have in Panama and adds that if the British authorities are unable to retrieve the assets before the Darwin’s are released, they could easily get their thieving hands on it again.