Life insurance fraud: a tale of a falsified death for money

21/03/2009 All of us experience hard times although some people feel as though they would be better off dead rather than face debt. Many fall victims to the burden of debt and end their lives. Some, on the other hand, pretends death or pretends that they’ve already died just to claim some insurance benefits (usually pecuniary in nature) from their security plans.

A loophole, found not too long ago, in the health insurance system has given people the idea to fake their own deaths in exchange for some advantages. An example of this would be the famous John Darwin’s disappearance in 2002. John, a former British teacher and a prison officer went missing while canoeing. After the long—unsuccessful—search for John, with the help of search and rescue teams, they declared John to be dead. Since he was presumed dead since his body was never found, his wife, Anne, claimed his life insurance money.

Years went by without people knowing where John was when in reality, he was just staying next door while the couple secretly looked for estates abroad so they could make their escape. John and Anne scouted numerous residencies all over the world before settling in Panama, Central America. It was then that they made the mistake of taking a photograph with a real estate agent who suspected something fishy with the couple and did some research on them. The agent uncovered the truth and reported them to the authorities and that was when their plan got spoiled.

Another factor which led to their discovery was the frequent phone calls Anne made to her husband. She suspected that the agent was getting wary of them and wanted to do something about it. So every now and then, Anne telephoned John to find a solution. During one of their phone conversations, a co-worker overheard the couple’s discussion and reported it. This, consequently, indicted the two in the late 2007.

In later reports, John Darwin claims he had “no recollection” of the last 5 years he had been gone. However, enough evidences were accumulated to prove him wrong. These consisted of letters to his girlfriends and his wife. All in all, they were able to obtain over 150 GBP’s from his life insurance policy and another 75,000 GBP’s from his teacher’s pension. He also got 4,000 from the Department of Work and Pensions.

In the end, John and Anne were sentenced in July of 2008 for their deception and life insurance fraud. John was sentenced to 6 years and 3 months in jail while his wife, Anne, is serving 6 years and 6 months in prison. This goes to show that it never pays to deceive someone for personal gain.