Police and fire service launch probe into fire at Gwynedd hotel
Five crews were still damping down and the incident was officially ongoing as of Saturday afternoon. North Wales Police and the fire service have launched an investigation into the incident. At one point there were six fire crews at the scene, along with an aerial ladder appliance and an incident command unit.
People are being advised to avoid the area and residents should keep doors and windows closed due to the substantial amount of smoke.The road remains closed. The hotel dates to 1867. It was renovated by Punch Taverns in 2012 before being taken over by local business people in 2020.The fire investigation will begin on Sunday morning.
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Telegraph
34 minutes ago
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The Salt Path's author accused of stealing £64k before losing house in court battle
The bestselling author of The Salt Path has been accused of stealing £64,000 before losing her home after paying back the illicit gains. Raynor Winn's memoir, written in 2018, traces how losing her beloved Welsh farmhouse following a 'bad investment' and battling her husband's corticobasal degeneration diagnosis spurred the penniless pair to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path. The book gained plaudits for its ' unflinching honesty ', selling two million copies worldwide. Last year, it was adapted into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. The author has gone on to write two sequels and secured a lucrative contract with Penguin to publish at least one more. But an investigation by The Observer claims the reason Winn and her husband, Moth, ended up in financial difficulty was because she was caught embezzling funds. The investigation claims the couple are believed to have been known as Sally and Tim Walker before they fled Wales after losing a court battle. 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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 Winn had been arrested and interviewed by police but vanished after being sent home for the night. Money borrowed from distant relative A life coach in her 60s, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Observer that Winn had shown up in London in 2008 asking her husband, a distant relative of Moth's, for a loan to repay the money to Mr Hemmings. ' [Raynor] told him she was on the run from the police because her employer had found out she had been taking money and was going to prosecute her criminally,' the life coach said. The Winns allegedly borrowed £100,000 from the couple, secured against their house, and repaid the money to Mr and Ms Hemmings. 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an hour ago
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Daily Mail
3 hours ago
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