The John Darwin disappearance case involved the faked death of the British former teacher and prison officer John Darwin. Darwin turned up alive in December 2007, five and a half years after he was believed to have died in a canoeing accident. Darwin was arrested and charged with fraud. His wife, Anne, was also arrested and charged for helping Darwin to collect his life insurance of £250,000. The fraudulent death also allowed the couple to pay off their £130,000 mortgage. In December 2007, after it was revealed the couple had been photographed together in Panama a year earlier, Anne confessed to knowing Darwin was alive and that he had been secretly living in their house and the house next door, which allowed him to receive the insurance money illegally for his own personal gain. On 23 July 2008, John and Anne Darwin were each sentenced to more than six years in prison. Background John Darwin was born on 14 August 1950, in Hartlepool, County Durham. He attended St Francis Xavier's Grammar School, Hartlepool and De La Salle College, Salford, Lancashire, where he studied biology and chemistry. On 22 December 1973, Darwin married Anne Stephenson in Blackhall. Darwin then taught science and mathematics at Derwentside for eighteen years before leaving to join Barclays. He later became a prison officer at HM Prison Holme House. Darwin and his wife, a doctor's receptionist, also ran a business renting bedsits in County Durham with twelve houses. They ran into debt after purchasing two houses in Seaton Carew in December 2000. The debts caused Darwin to talk about faking his own death to claim the insurance by early 2002. Disappearance Darwin was seen paddling out to sea in his kayak on 21 March 2002, at Seaton Carew. Later the same day, he was reported as "missing" after failing to report to work. A large-scale sea search took place, during which of coastline were searched. There was no sign of Darwin, though a double-ended paddle was retrieved from the sea near Seaton Carew the following day. Later on 22 March 2002, the wreckage of Darwin's kayak was found. The North Sea was unusually calm and rescuers were puzzled that Darwin could have got into trouble in such conditions. Missing years During the years that Darwin was presumed dead, he lived for some time in a bedsit next door to the family home; he then secretly moved