LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- John Darwin 's wife said her husband faked his own death to avoid mounting debts and holed up in the family home for years , hiding from his own sons , according to UK media reports . Anne Darwin said her husband , believed by police and his sons to have been lost at sea five years ago , recently returned to the UK , faking amnesia , because he missed his now-adult children , according to The Daily Mirror . `` I did n't think he would get away with it but he had had enough of being dead , '' she is quoted as saying . John Darwin , 57 , is being questioned by police in northeastern England following his arrest on suspicion of fraud , a spokesman for Cleveland , England , police said . Darwin walked into a police station in London last weekend -- five years after he was thought to have died after the remains of a canoe he paddled into the North Sea , off northeastern England , washed up on shore . Darwin was declared dead by a coroner in 2003 , 13 months after his disappearance in March 2002 . His wife , the paper reported , described how the prison officer and former teacher discussed faking his death just before he disappeared because of mounting debts . When John Darwin vanished she said she thought he was dead -- until , she is reported to have said , he turned up on the doorstep of the family home at Seaton Carew , northeastern England , one year later . `` I did n't even recognize him at first , '' Anne Darwin told the newspaper , adding that her husband looked thin , dirty and smelled dreadful . `` I was relieved he was alive , of course . But I was also very angry with him . '' She said that her husband stayed at the home on and off before he got a one-room apartment in another part of the large house so he could vanish if friends or family arrived , also disguising himself with a hat or limp when he went outside . But hiding away began to take its toll , Anne Darwin reportedly said , and the pair decided to leave Britain . Her husband traveled on a false passport to look at property in Cyprus and inquire about buying a catamaran in Gibraltar , she said , before they finally settled in Panama . She went to live there six weeks ago . She is believed to be in the United States after leaving Panama on a flight late Thursday , a Panamanian immigration representative has told CNN . Anne Darwin , the newspaper said , stated that it was always her plan to repay two insurance policies in her husband 's name : one , a life insurance policy , for £25,000 ( $ 50,000 ) ; and another for £130,000 ( $ 265,000 ) , which was paid to their home loan company to pay off the mortgage in the event of her husband 's death . The newspaper said she was not paid for her story and accepts she is likely to be arrested upon her return to Britain . Following his reappearance last weekend , John Darwin was initially reunited with his two sons , who released a joint statement saying their father claimed to have amnesia dating back to June 2000 . But in a statement released by Cleveland police Thursday , the sons , Mark , 31 , and Anthony , 29 , said they were in an `` angry and confused state of mind '' and they wanted no further contact with their parents . After media reports Thursday that Anne Darwin had confessed to knowing her husband was alive , the sons said : `` If the papers ' allegations of a confession from our mam are true , then we very much feel that we have been the victims in a large scam . '' `` In the short space of time following our dad 's appearance in London on Saturday , we have gone through a rollercoaster of emotion , '' the statement said . `` From the height of elation at finding him to be alive to the depths of despair at the recent stories of fraud and these latest pictures , '' it added . `` How could our mam continue to let us believe our dad had died when he was very much alive ? We have not spoken to either of our parents since our dad 's arrest and at this present time we want no further contact with them , '' the statement said . E-mail to a friend .
Reports : Wife says he faked his death to avoid debts , hid in their home for years . Anne Darwin , years , thought to have drowned at sea off northeastern Britain in years . Reappeared years ; being questioned on suspicion of fraud . Sons of the couple say they are in an `` angry and confused state of mind ''