Trusting The Salt Path author was our biggest mistake, family says

A family who claim The Salt Path author Raynor Winn stole tens of thousands of pounds from their business say trusting her was their "biggest mistake".

Ros Hemmings and her daughter Debbie, from Pwllheli in Gwynedd, allege Ms Winn - who worked for their property business in the early 2000s - stole around £64,000.

It comes after an investigation by the Observer contained claims Ms Winn gave misleading information about her life story in her book The Salt Path, which has been made into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs.

Ms Winn has called the Observer report "highly misleading" and disputed many of its claims.

The 2018 book The Salt Path, and its recent film adaptation, tells the story of a couple who decide to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path after their home was repossessed following a bad business deal.

But the Observer claimed Ms Winn - whose legal name is Sally Walker - and her husband, Moth Winn, had lost their home after she took out a loan to repay money she had been accused of stealing from her previous employer, Martin Hemmings.

In a statement issued earlier in July, Ms Winn stood by the book's description of how they came to lose their house saying the dispute with the Hemmings did not result in her and her husband losing their home.

Martin Hemmings, who died in 2012, was an estate agent and property surveyor from north Wales, and husband to Ros Hemmings.

Mrs Hemmings, 74, became friends with Mr Winn when they worked at the same National Trust site in the 1990s.

"I got on extremely well with him," said Mrs Hemmings. "He seemed a really nice person."

Then in 2001, Mr Winn mentioned his wife had lost her job at a hotel as a bookkeeper.

"It coincided with my husband's bookkeeper retiring so I suggested her to my husband," said Mrs Hemmings.

"She came for an interview, and she was the one. She seemed very efficient, we liked her."

But she said after that her husband noticed a change in the business.

"Within a year or so we weren't making any money," said Mrs Hemmings.

Initially they did not suspect anything.

"I did not think there was any reason for this aside from the fact that Martin was rubbish at sending out bills," said Mrs Hemmings.

But their daughter Debbie, who was aged around 29 at the time, became emotional as she remembered receiving a distressed call from her father as the financial pressure built over a number of years.

"He said: 'I just don't know what's gone wrong, I'm working every hour God gives me and there's no money,'" said Debbie Adams, now aged 46.

"About five days after that first call 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'."

They claimed a meeting between Mr Hemmings and the bank manager showed £6,000 to £9,000 was missing. They said Mr Hemmings then went straight to the police and a local solicitor.

They said shortly afterwards, Ms Winn visited them at their home.

"She was crying," said Mrs Hemmings. "She had brought a cheque I think it was for £9,000. She said this is all the money I have, I've had to sell some of my mother's things to do this, can we call it quits?"

Mrs Hemmings said her husband took the money on the advice of the police who said: "It may be all you get."

But they also advised the couple to start going back through the accounts to check if anything else was missing.

She said they went back through years of the business's financial paperwork.

"It was a very upsetting thing to do and it took us weeks and weeks," said Mrs Hemmings. "But we found she had taken about £64,000."

Mrs Hemmings said a few weeks later they received a letter from a solicitor in London offering to pay the money back and legal fees which came to around £90,000.

It included an agreement not to pursue criminal charges which Mr Hemmings signed.

Mrs Hemmings said: "He was keen to do it in a way, we had no money and had nearly been basically bankrupt. She also had young children, and to have a mother in prison or facing a criminal charge, he didn't want that to happen."

In a statement released in July after the Observer article, which included allegations from Mrs Hemmings, Ms Winn acknowledged making "mistakes" earlier in her career.

She said it had been a pressured time, and although she was questioned by police, she was not charged.

"Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry," she said.

Ms Winn said the case had been settled between her and her ex-employer on a "non-admissions basis", because she "did not have the evidence required to support what happened".

She said: "Mr Hemmings was as keen to reach a private resolution as I was."

BBC Wales put Ms Winn's statement to Mrs Hemmings.

She responded: "I think she's just trying to put the best spin on the question.

"The mistake was that we ever employed her, and the biggest mistake my husband made, because obviously I'd recommended her in a way, was that he trusted her."

The Salt Path has sold more than two million copies since its publication, and Ms Winn has written two sequels, The Wild Silence and Landlines, which also focus on themes of nature, wild camping, homelessness and walking.

Mrs Hemmings said she had not read The Salt Path because she did not feel it would reflect her view on why the couple did the walk.

She added: "I'd have stamped on the book I think. Just to gloss over why they ran out of money to me was shocking."

Her daughter Debbie said: "I don't wish ill of them. I just wish that they would tell the truth, and the truth needs to be told."

In her statement in July, Ms Winn said: "The Salt Path is about what happened to Moth and me, after we lost our home and found ourselves homeless on the headlands of the south west.

"It's not about every event or moment in our lives, but rather about a capsule of time when our lives moved from a place of complete despair to a place of hope."

Ros and Debbie said they had no paperwork or contract from the time to back up their claims - although others, like their solicitor involved in the case, Michael Strain, have corroborated their claims as part of the Observer's investigation.

Mrs Hemmings said she was speaking out now to give "a voice" to her late husband.

"I can't forgive her for sort of destroying my husband's confidence in people, because it did," she said.

"And I think that's partly why we didn't talk about it. He was so embarrassed that this had happened to his business."

North Wales Police said they were unable to confirm or deny any details regarding Ms Winn.

When approached for comment, Ms Winn's spokesman referred BBC News to the statement Ms Winn made on 9 July.

He added: "She is very grateful for all the kind messages of support she has received from readers."

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