Vulnerable missing woman is alive and working as gangmaster, her ex-carers say

Former carers of missing woman Margaret Fleming have told BBC Scotland they have spoken to her recently.

Margaret, who has learning difficulties, had only been seen by her carers – Eddie Cairney and Avril Jones – since 1999, before they reported her missing in October last year.

The report was made after police visited the five-bedroom cottage on the Clyde coast at Inverkip, Inverclyde, said to be over inquiries from a benefits agency.

Mr Cairney, 75, told BBC Scotland he has spoken to her since then, claiming she had been in London and Poland and was now working as a gangmaster.

He said: “She has been here once. Not here, not to the house, but we have seen her once.

“When we saw her she was just the way she left, contrary to earlier days, she was clean and behaved, she had stopped this shouting and bawling at you.

“She has come to no harm unless she has got harmed in the past couple of weeks.”

Ms Fleming, 36, is thought to have lived with her father in Port Glasgow before he died in October 1995.

She then lived with her grandparents and her mother, but later moved in with carers in 1997 and has been estranged from her mother since.

Her carers reported her missing in October 2016, but the last independent sighting of her was actually at a family event on December 17, 1999.

The broadcaster said the original police contact was triggered by a call from a benefits agency.

BBC Scotland said it appears her Disability Living Allowance was being replaced by a Personal Independence Payment and she needed to attend an assessment.

Mr Cairney told the BBC that Ms Fleming had a “persecution complex” and was afraid of authority, claiming she ran off when officers arrived at the house.

He said: “I turned around to get Margaret and she was gone, out of the door. There was police at the back, police at the front, she could not get out of that door without being seen.

“I don’t know which way she went. She must have just walked right through them.”

Ms Jones said the pair were not angry with over her disappearance.

She added: “We understand that she’s scared of authority.”

Police Scotland has carried out a forensic search of the property and its grounds.

Ms Fleming is described as 5ft 5ins with a heavy build, collar-length black hair and brown eyes.

When reported missing on October 28, she was wearing a green tartan fleece, dark trousers, dark Karrimor boots and was carrying a handbag.

Police Scotland’s website states officers in Greenock are continuing to appeal for information to trace Ms Fleming.

_{Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2017, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Police Scotland / PA Wire.}