A bar in Hartlepool is being renamed after back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin.

Sinatra’s Bar, near Darwin’s home in Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, is changing its name to The Seaton Canoe.

Customers were challenged to come up with a new name for the pub and win £100, but no one came up with the name owners Richard and Angie Lakey had in mind.

The story of Darwin, who was missing, presumed dead, after he paddled out to sea, put Seaton Carew in the national spotlight.

Mr Lakey told the Northern Echo: “I am pleased with the name. It stands out and I am sure it will cause a few smiles.

“Surprisingly, no one guessed the name we had in mind, so we will give the money to the lifeboat, which we thought seemed fitting.

“We are having the signs made up and soon they will be put up and we will celebrate a proper opening night.”

Darwin, 57, gave himself up in December, five years after he was presumed dead when his canoe was found washed up.

He admits a £250,000 insurance fraud and will be sentenced after the trial of his wife Anne in July.