John Darwin and his wife Anne have each been sentenced to six years in prison following the faking of Mr Darwin’s death and the subsequent fraudulent insurance claimes.
Mr Justice Wilkie, at Teesside Crown Court, said:
Although the sums involved are not as high as some reported cases, the duration of the offending, its multi-faceted nature and, in particular, the grief inflicted over the years to those who, in truth, were the real victims, your own sons, whose lives you crushed, make this a case which merits a particularly severe sentence.
A compensation hearing will take place at a later date. This hearing will determing how the Darwn’s will pay back the £250,000 that they had defrauded through the scam.
Det Insp Andy Greenwood said that the couple’s sons were devastated at what had happened. He said:.
If they get over it, it will take some time and some assistance.
I just hope they can go away from the court building today and move on with their life.
They have dealt with it, under the circumstances, extremely well.
So, this case has not yet come to its conclusion. The criminal proceedings are over and now the civil proceedings to recover the money defrauded, includng that abroad, will now begin. This is surly to drive teh couple into bankruptcy, which is what they tried to avoid by carrying out the scam in the first place.
I do not think that the judge has been overly harsh in sentencing. His reasoning for such a harsh sentence appears justified. Allowing your children to believe that their dad is dead is utterly abhorrent. Hopefully these two young men will not be emotionally scarred for life by this great deceit by their parents, the two people who they rightly expected to protect, love and care for them.
prout de jure 