LONDON: A husband and a wife who faked his death in a canoeing accident so they could claim life insurance payments were sentenced to jail terms totalling more than 12 years by a British court on Wednesday.

John and Anne Darwin were sent to prison over a scam which fooled even their two sons and only came to light five years after the shattered remains of John Darwin’s canoe were found washed up on the north-east coast of England.

He was sentenced to six years and three months in prison, while she was jailed for six and a half years.

The court handed down the sentences after Anne Darwin was found guilty of fraud and money laundering following a seven-day trial at Teesside Crown Court, north-east England. Her husband had already admitted guilt.

Prosecutors in her trial said she helped him disappear to escape mounting property debts and illegally claim life insurance to the tune of 250,000 pounds.

She claimed he coerced her into doing it.

Judge Alan Wilkie called John Darwin the “driving force behind this deceit.”

But he added: “You, Anne Darwin, perhaps initially unconvinced, played an instrumental... role,” also telling her she “contributed to its success and played your part efficiently.” “In my judgment, you operated as a team, each contributing to the joint venture.”