Woman cleared of stealing £15,000 from Glasgow food bank

A mother has spoken out after being cleared of stealing £15,000 from a food bank.

Julie Webster was accused of taking the cash from the food bank in Maryhill, Glasgow, which she helped set up.

She was finally cleared after vital paperwork was examined by prosecutors four days before she was due to go on trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

These showed that Julie, 42, had not taken any cash, but she is angry at how long it took to clear her name.

Ms Webster was supported by her father, Jamie, a former GMB union convenor who helped save Govan shipyard in 1999.

She told how she was driven out of her home in Glasgow after being spat at in the street and having her home targeted by vandals.

Ms Webster said: "I almost miscarried, my partner had cancer and needed life-saving surgery.

"If it wasn't for my mum and my dad, financially I would be broken."

She added: "The two-and-a-half years of my life that have been ruined, I'm never getting that back."

The grandmother said people made false allegations about her abusing and neglecting her children.

She said: "My family didn't want me to leave, but I thought it would be best and packed up and left."

Her father, Jamie, said: "I'm hard-nosed after 50 years working in shipyards. The emphasis there was on never giving up.

"I knew Julie was innocent, but I became very disillusioned about what happened to her.

"When I watched where it took my daughter I said 'never do volunteer work again'.

"That's hard to say. Our family was at risk of disintegrating in front of us."

Julie helped start the food bank in Maryhill in January 2013 before it closed in March 2016.

She worked 40 hours a week - 20 as a volunteer.

But, for the last five months of her contract, she went without pay after funding was pulled.

A police probe was then launched after an allegation was made that £15,000 was missing from the food bank's accounts.

She said she was "heartbroken" when the facility closed its doors for the last time.

"I put the first tin of beans on the shelves and I took the last tin of beans off," she added.

"The only people that are going to miss out are the people of Maryhill and surrounding areas.

"I am innocent, I devoted three years of my life to that food bank."

Ms Webster said she had no idea where the £15,000 figure came from.

Ms Webster had been due to return to Glasgow Sheriff Court this week but, just days before the trial was due to start, she received a call from her solicitor Lyndsay Gaughan.

The food bank founder said: "She phoned and told me the charges had been dropped. I was delighted."