Canoe man John Darwin, 57, who will appear at Hartlepool Magistrates’ Court today charged with obtaining life insurance money by deception, reportedly tried to buy a 48ft catamaran in Gibraltar while he was ‘dead’.

Darwin disappeared five years ago after apparently setting off in a canoe near his home in Seaton Carew. Police found his canoe but not his body and he was presumed to have drowned. Last week he walked into a police station in London claiming to have lost his memory.

His wife Anne is under arrest following her return to the UK from Panama where she had moved to seven weeks ago.