Darwin wrote to wife daily in jail

Anne Darwin, 56, from Hartlepool, was accused by the prosecution of making a "last-ditch" attempt at clearing her name by telling a number of lies under cross-examination at Teesside Crown Court.

She told the jury she threw flowers into the sea on the anniversary of her husband's "death" to comfort sons Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29, who believed he really had drowned and were unaware of their parents' insurance scam to clear their debts and start a new life in Panama.

The former doctor's receptionist said her husband wrote to her daily when they were on remand and she eventually asked him to stop.

"He used to write to me. Always, every day. His letters would be repetitive," she told David Waters QC, defending, under re-examination.

She told him to stop his letters after reading an article in a newspaper, around February this year, claiming he had been writing to another woman.

"I had requested him to stop writing to me," she told the court.

"His letters came and often I didn't open them. I didn't want to read them and I asked him to stop writing."

She is mounting the unusual defence of "marital coercion", meaning her husband forced her against her will to break the law, and that he was present when each offence was committed.

She denies six counts of deception and nine counts of money laundering. The trial continues.