British police have charged a kayaker who was presumed dead with life insurance fraud and lying to get a false passport, officials said Saturday.

John Darwin, 57, the back-from-the-dead canoeist, leaves Magistrates Court in Hartlepool, England, on Friday.
(Scott Heppell/Associated Press)

John Darwin, 57, was presumed dead after his red kayak was found broken apart in the North Sea in 2002. But one week ago, he showed up at a police station in London, claiming he had amnesia and wondering if he might be a missing person.

At a news conference on Saturday, police officials alleged that Darwin, an ex-prison guard and former science teacher from the Hartlepool area in northeast England, masterminded the accident as an elaborate fraud to clear his family's debts. He was declared dead by a coroner in 2003.

Darwin is scheduled to appear in court in Hartlepool on Monday.

Detective Sgt. Iain Henderson said officers now want to question Darwin's wife, Anne, who is believed to be in the United States.

She told British media last week that she was in contact with her husband during the time he was believed to be dead.

"I have been living my life as a lie, constantly looking over my shoulder, realizing something like this could happen at some stage," Anne Darwin told the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail.

The Mirror reported that John Darwin travelled on a fake passport under the name of John Jones and that his wife transferred money to him in 2005 to help him buy a yacht, but the sale fell through.

The Darwins' sons — Anthony and Mark Darwin — said they didn't realize their father was alive and they never knew their mother had knowledge of this.

The sons sent out a news release in northern England last week explaining that they believe they were the victims of a "large scam" and had disowned their parents.

Questions have been raised, however, about whether the children knew of the deceit since it emerged that both recently left their jobs. Both insist they knew nothing.

With files from the Associated Press