A widow who claims The Salt Path author Raynor Winn stole thousands of pounds from her family business has said that it destroyed her late husband’s confidence in people.
Ros Hemmings and her daughter Debbie have spoken out about Ms Winn, who worked for their property business in the early 2000s as a bookkeeper.
They claim she stole around £64,000 from the family business.
Ms Winn rose to fame in 2018 after her book The Salt Path became a bestseller – telling the story of a couple who decide to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path after losing their home in following a business deal.
The success of the book led to a film being created, starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs.
However earlier this month an investigation by The Observer suggested Winn’s story about her life in The Salt Path was misleading.
The Observer claimed that Raynor and her husband Moth Winn, real names Sally and Tim Walker, lost their money after failing to pay money they had been accused of stealing from Martin Hemmings, husband of Ros.
In an interview with BBC News, Ms Hemmings said she was speaking out to give a voice to her late husband
She said: ‘I can’t forgive her for sort of destroying my husband’s confidence in people, because it did.
Mr Hemmings died in 2012, having worked as an estate agent and property surveyor.
Mrs Hemmings became friends with Mr Winn when the pair worked together in the 1990s.
In 2001, Mr Winn mentioned his wife had lost her job as a bookkeeper at a hotel and Mrs Hemmings suggested to her husband to hire Raynor for their business.
However, a year later the couple noticed that they were no longer ‘making any money’.
Their daughter Debbie who was 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 46.
Mr Hemmings visited a bank manager who showed him that between £6,000 and £9,000 was missing. He then went to the police and a local solicitor.
Ms Winn then visited them at their home with a cheque for £9,000, allegedly telling them ‘it was all the money I have’.
Mr Hemmings was advised to take the money by police who said it may be all he would be able to get back.
They were also told to check the accounts to see if any more was missing.
Mrs Hemmings said: ‘It was a very upsetting thing to do and it took us weeks and weeks, but we found she had taken about £64,000.’
Some weeks later Mrs Hemmings said they recieved a letter from a solicitor in London offering to pay back the money and legal fees totalling around £90,000.
The offer included an agreement not to press criminal charges against Raynor Winn.
Mrs Hemmings said her husband signed the agreement, not wanting to put a mother through a criminal trial.
Mrs Hemmings said: ‘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.’
‘I did not think there was any reason for this aside from the fact that Martin was rubbish at sending out bills.’
In a statement following The Observer investigation, Raynor Winn said: ‘The dispute with Martin Hemmings, referred to in the Observer by his wife, is not the court case in The Salt Path.
‘Nor did it result in us losing our home. Mr Hemmings is not Cooper. Mrs Hemmings is not in the book, nor is she a relative of someone who is.
‘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.’
Mrs Hemmings said she had not read The Salt Path, which sold more than two million copies, because she felt it would not reflect her view on why the couple embarked on their walk.
Speaking to the MailOnline from her remote Welsh cottage last week, Debbie said: ‘He felt he was ripped off by her, which he was.
‘My mum is still angry and frustrated by it as my dad was upset about it.
‘He felt really let down by it all.
‘But I don’t feel angry any more as I have parked it.
‘But I’m not sure my mum has.’
A close friend of her mother Ros Hemmings told MailOnline that she and her late husband were ‘saddened and very frustrated’ that Winn – real name Sally Walker – had escaped any punishment for her alleged theft.
On the other hand, at least they got the money back, said the friend.
‘If things had gone differently, and Walker had not been able to come up with the money then she may have been prosecuted, probably would not have gone to jail and ended up doing community service.
‘Then she’d have been repaying their money at some paltry rate such as £5 a week for the rest of her life.
‘So although it wasn’t a perfect solution, it was probably better than the alternative.’
