THE back-from-the-dead canoeist and his wife will be reunited for the first time in more than a year when they face a hearing to claw back the £250,000 they conned out of financial institutions, a judge said today.

The legal saga of Anne Darwin, 57, and her husband John will come to an end in November when they face a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.

Prosecutors will seek to reclaim the fortune the couple made from faking 58-year-old Mr Darwins death before they started a new life in Panama.

Mr Justice Wilkie, sitting at Newcastle Crown Court, ordered that the couple, who he jailed last year, appear at Leeds Crown Court in the week commencing November 9.

The judge said the hearing will end the legal chapter in the couples story.

This has been dragging on inordinately, he said.

The couple made fraudulent life insurance and pension claims after Mr Darwin disappeared while paddling his canoe in the North Sea near his home in Seaton Carew, Hartlepool in March 2002.

The couple started a new life in Panama but he came back to the UK in November 2007, telling police he was a missing person with amnesia.

His story, which caught the attention of the world, fell apart when a photo of the grinning couple turned up on the internet.

Anne Darwin was jailed for six-and-a-half years following a money-laundering trial while her husband was sentenced to six years three months after admitting fraud.