Police have been granted a further 36 hours to question "missing" canoeist John Darwin on suspicion of fraud.

The 57-year-old, who reappeared last weekend after he was believed to have drowned at sea in 2002, was taken to Hartlepool magistrates for a hearing.

His wife Anne, 55, is reportedly on her way back to the UK from Panama, where she moved last month.

Cleveland Police want to speak to her "as a matter of urgency", also on suspicion of fraud.

On Wednesday, a photo emerged showing Mr and Mrs Darwin together in Panama in 2006.

Mrs Darwin admitted to newspapers the picture was genuine, but said she acted in good faith when cashing in her husband's life insurance after he was declared dead by a coroner in 2003.

'An account'

Mr Darwin walked into a London police station on 1 December, more than five years after going missing off Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, in March 2002 in what had been believed to be a canoeing tragedy.

Chief Inspector Andy Greenwood, said on Friday that Mr Darwin had been "putting forward some sort of account" and "giving some sort of explanation" during police questioning.

He said the police had received calls from North and South America, mainland Europe and "all over the world" in response to his appeal for information about Mr Darwin.

Cleveland Police have also said they want to speak to an angler who told the Sun newspaper he met Mr Darwin while fishing in Cornwall 18 months ago.

Ch Insp Greenwood would not confirm whether Mrs Darwin was being treated as a witness or a suspect at this stage.

He said: "If Anne would like to speak to me then I would certainly be keen to speak to her."

After the court hearing, Mr Darwin was driven back to Kirkleatham Police Station in Teesside.

'Large scam'

Mrs Darwin is quoted in both the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail as saying she has been living her life "as a lie, constantly looking over my shoulder".

"I was never totally relaxed: always on edge and knowing the truth could come out at any time," she is reported to have told journalists.

The couple's sons, Anthony and Mark, who both recently left their jobs, have said they want nothing more to do with their mother or father.

They insist they did not know their father was alive and say they are furious at being made the victims of what they describe as a "large scam".

In a statement released through Cleveland Police, they said: "How could our mam continue to let us believe our dad had died when he was very much alive?"

She is quoted in newspapers as begging her sons to forgive her, saying: "What kind of a mother am I?"

Mrs Darwin sold the family home on Teesside and moved to Panama six weeks ago.

A neighbour of the Darwins in Panama City, Patricia Centella de Lopez, told the BBC that Mr Darwin had arrived in July.

The Daily Mirror says Mrs Darwin would not say exactly when she found out her husband was still alive, but the paper quotes her as saying the reason her husband travelled back to the UK may have been because he missed his sons.

She is reported to have said that it was a joint decision to go to Panama and when she arrived there, her husband was waiting for her.