Author of best-selling memoir The Salt Path accused of stealing £64k before losing house after failing to repay money

6 July 2025, 23:55

Raynor Winn is said to have invented the reason she and her husband lost their home before they embarked on the walk on which the memoir is based.

The Salt Path describes the couple's 630-mile walk along the South West Coast Path, which they undertook after they lost their home and Raynor's husband, Moth, was diagnosed with a fatal neurological condition.

The book claims the couple lost their home after investing a "substantial sum" into a friend's business which ultimately failed.

An investigation by The Observer has revealed that the couple's real names are Sally and Tim Walker and that Sally Walker was arrested after being accused of stealing tens of thousands of pounds from her employer.

Ros Hemmings, wife of Walker's former boss Martin Hemmings, has accused Walker of stealing around £64,000 from her former employer.

Ms Hemmings said her husband, the owner of an estate-agent firm, noticed in 2008 that a significant sum of money had not been deposited by Winn.

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This discovery led him to conduct an audit, which revealed approximately £9,000 missing over the previous few months.

According to Ms Hemmings, Walker pleaded for an opportunity to repay the missing 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 told The Observer, adding that the family had accepted her offer.

She added: “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.”

Michael Strain, the Hemmings’ solicitor, said Walker was arrested and questioned by police but disappeared after being released for the night.

Sally Walker then allegedly borrowed £100,000 from a relative of Tim Walker to repay the money she was accused of stealing, in return for her former boss agreeing not to pursue criminal charges.

The couple agreed that the relative could put the loan against their home at an interest rate of 18%, payable on demand. When the relative's company failed, he informed two men to whom he owed money that they could recover part of their losses from Tim and Sally Walker.

In 2010, the debt secured against the Walkers’ home was transferred from James to these two individuals, who then sought repayment.

In February 2012, the men took the Walkers to court, where a judge ruled that the Walkers had one year to repay the debt. If they failed to do so, the men would be permitted to sell the house to recover their funds.

After failing to repay the debt, the Walkers lost their house.

In The Salt Path, Raynor Winn claims that the couple became homeless in 2013 after losing the house. However, documents show the Walkers owned a property in France bought in 2007.

The investigation also raised doubts around Tim Walker's diagnosis with the fatal condition corticobasal degeneration (CBD). The life expectancy for someone diagnosed with the condition is six to eight years, according to neurologists. Tim Walker would have been suffering with the condition for 18 years, with no visible symptoms.

Neurologists and researchers told The Observer they had never seen anyone live as long as Tim Walker and were surprised by his apparent lack of acute symptoms.

A spokeswoman for the couple told the Mail that the allegations made in the Observer newspaper were "highly misleading."

Their statement 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."

The Salt Path has sold over two million copies worldwide and was adapted into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs.