‘Salt Path author stole £64,000 from my father – the truth needs to be told'

Telegraph

2 days ago

A woman who claimed the author of The Salt Path stole £64,000 from her parent's business has said 'the truth needs to be told'.
Debbie Adams and her mother Ros Hemmings alleged Raynor Winn stole about £64,000 while working for the family's property business.
It is one of several allegations that have cast doubt on the accuracy of Winn's best-selling memoir.
The Salt Path, which tells the story of the author and her husband, Moth, walking the 630-mile coastal path, claimed the couple made the trek after losing their home in north Wales following a poor investment in a friend's business.
However, an investigation by The Observer claimed she actually lost the property after stealing from her former employers, the Hemmings family.
The alleged theft is said to have occurred while she worked part-time as a bookkeeper for the family's estate agency and property surveyor in Pwllheli, north Wales, from the early 2000s.
Winn has called The Observer report 'highly misleading' but admitted she 'deeply regrets' certain 'mistakes' in her past.
In her first public comments, Ms Adams, 46, described how the alleged theft affected her father, Martin Hemmings, who died in 2012.
She recalled getting a phone call from him, when she was aged about 29, in which he told her that money was missing from the business's accounts.
She told the BBC: 'I had a phone call from dad saying he was worried about the business. [He said] 'I don't know what's gone wrong, there's no money in the account, I don't know what to do.'
'He said: 'I just don't know what's gone wrong, I'm working every hour God gives me and there's no money'.
'About five days later he rings up and goes, she [Winn] has been nicking money. I was like, 'dad come on now, no. Surely there's something gone wrong?' He said 'no, we've had a look and there's money missing'.'
It is claimed that Mr Hemmings had noticed Winn failing to deposit a large sum of money in 2008, prompting him to conduct an audit and find that around £9,000 was missing from the previous few months.
Winn is said to have paid him back after arriving at the couple's house with a cheque for £9,000.
However, after revisiting years of the business's financial paperwork, Mr Hemmings allegedly discovered she had stolen £64,000.
It has been claimed that, to avoid criminal prosecution, Winn allegedly borrowed £100,000, secured against their house, and repaid the money to the couple.
This loan was later called in and their house was repossessed, it has been claimed.
The Hemmings family have said they were left frustrated by Winn's subsequent rise to fame.
The Salt Path spent nearly two years on The Sunday Times bestseller list after it was published in 2018, and its film adaptation, starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson, was released in May.
Ms Adams said: 'I don't wish ill of them. I just wish that they would tell the truth, and the truth needs to be told.'
Her mother, who has not read the book, added: 'I'd have stamped on the book I think. Just to gloss over why they ran out of money to me was shocking.'
Winn has issued a lengthy statement responding to the claims and said she was receiving legal advice.
She wrote: 'I worked for Martin Hemmings in the years before the economic crash of 2008. For me, it was a pressured time. It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business.
'Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.
'Mr Hemmings made an allegation against me to the police, accusing me of taking money from the company. I was questioned, I was not charged, nor did I face criminal sanctions.
'I reached a settlement with Martin Hemmings because I did not have the evidence required to support what happened. The terms of the settlement were willingly agreed by both parties.'
The Observer report also claimed that Winn and her husband owned a house in France and their real names are Sally and Tim Walker.
It also suggested that Moth did not suffer from corticobasal degeneration (CBD), which is central to the events in the memoir.