LONDON - The wife of a man who faked his own drowning death in an insurance scam has been convicted of fraud in Britain.

A jury found Anne Darwin guilty Wednesday of six counts of fraud and nine counts of money laundering after a seven-day trial at a court in northern England.

Darwin, 56, acknowledged that she helped her husband John stage his death in an apparent canoe accident in 2002 to collect pension and insurance payments. But she insisted she had been coerced.

The amount involved was 250,000 pounds, or US$500,000.

John Darwin was declared dead in 2003, the year after he was reported missing after going for a paddle in the North Sea near his home in northeast England.

Prosecutors said the couple kept the truth that he was alive secret even from their two adult sons while they planned to start a new life together in Panama.

The plot began to unravel last December when Darwin walked into a London police station claiming to have amnesia.

John Darwin, 57, pleaded guilty in March to deception and fraud. The couple will be sentenced later on Wednesday.

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