The author of the best-selling memoir The Salt Path has been accused of stealing £64,000 before losing her home after she failed to pay off her debts.
In the memoir, Raynor Winn writes that she and her husband lost their home after investing a “substantial sum” into a friend’s business that ultimately failed. They then embarked on a long-distance hike across the southwest of England with only a few pennies in their pockets.
The memoir has spawned a movie adaptation, starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, which was released in the UK in May.
The Observer reports that Mrs Winn was arrested after being accused of stealing thousands of pounds from her employer.
It is claimed that the couple ultimately failed to repay a loan taken out by a relative to repay the stolen money and lost their home.
But a spokesperson for the couple have hit back at the newspaper’s investigation, calling its findings “highly misleading”.
The Observer found that the Salt Path's protagonists, Raynor Winn and her husband, Moth, previously went by their legal names, Sally and Tim Walker.
Ros Hemmings, wife of Mrs Walker’s former boss Martin Hemmings, has accused the author of stealing up to £64,000 while working at an estate agent firm.
She said that in 2008, the couple became aware that Mrs Walker had failed to deposit a large sum of cash.
Recalling the incident, Mrs Hemmings told the Observer Mrs Walker had pleaded for the chance to repay the funds.
“She was sobbing in the yard and said: ‘I’ve even had to sell my mother’s wedding dress to do this,’” Ms Hemmings claimed, adding that the family had accepted her offer.
She said: “Her claims [in the book] that it was all just a business deal that went wrong really upset me. When really she had embezzled the money from my husband. It made me feel sick.
"In the end, I think it was around £64,000 that Raynor Winn had nicked over the previous few years.”
The Hemmings’ solicitor Michael Strain also told the Observer that Mrs Walker was arrested and questioned by police after the large sum of money was reported missing.
Mrs Walker is understood to have travelled to London where she reportedly borrowed £100,000 from a relative of her husband to repay the money she was accused of stealing.
Mrs Hemmings also recalled how her husband Martin, was contacted by “some fancy London solicitor” who told them Mrs Walker would pay all the missing money and would cover legal costs on both sides if he agreed not to pursue a criminal case against her and signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Later on, when the Walkers’ relative’s business failed, the couple’s home was repossessed as they had to repay the relative’s business associates, it is claimed.
Further accusations have been raised about whether the couple were actually made homeless when they lost their home, as documents reportedly show that Sally and Tim Walker owned a house in south-west France, which they had purchased in 2007.
Questions have also been raised about Mr Walker’s health. In the book, Moth has a debilitating illness, corticobasal degeneration [CBD], a rare neurological condition in the same family as Parkinson's disease.
The life expectancy for sufferers after diagnosis is around six to eight years, according to the NHS - however, Moth has reportedly been living with the condition for 18 years.
The spokesperson for the Winns added: “The Salt Path lays bare the physical and spiritual journey Moth and I shared, an experience that transformed us completely and altered the course of our lives. This is the true story of our journey.”
