Anne Darwin, wife of the canoeist who "returned from the dead" five years after going missing, appeared in court today charged with two counts of deception. She was remanded in custody until December 14 at Hartlepool Magistrates Court in northeast England, Cleveland police said.

Darwin, 55, was charged with dishonestly obtaining 25,000 pounds by money transfer and dishonestly obtaining 137,000 pounds by money transfer. Her husband John Darwin, 57, had appeared at the same court yesterday, charged with obtaining money by deception and making a false declaration to get a passport. He walked into a London police station last week claiming amnesia after apparently drowning at sea in a canoeing accident five years ago, sparking days of international media coverage.

Police yesterday issued a photo of Darwin with a straggly beard and appealed for information from anyone who might have known him under the name John Jones.

Officers arrested his wife on Sunday following her return from Panama, where she had recently moved.

The couple's sons said last week they wanted no further contact with their parents after their mother told newspapers a photo of her and her husband taken together in Panama last year was genuine.

Detective Superintendent Tony Hutchinson told reporters yesterday that the couple's two sons were not suspects in the case.

Anne Darwin had reported her husband missing in 2002 when he failed to return home after canoeing in the North Sea near their home in Hartlepool, northeast England.

A few weeks later the shattered remains of his red kayak were discovered. A coroner declared Darwin dead in 2003 after a police inquiry.