The carers of Margaret Fleming (pictured) have spoken for the first time since she was reported missing a year ago
The carers of Margaret Fleming have spoken for the first time since she was reported missing a year ago.
According to police, Eddie Cairney and Avril Jones are the only two people to have seen Miss Fleming, who has learning difficulties, since 1999.
Avril, 56, and Eddie, 75, reported her missing after being visited by benefits staff and now say she has been working in London and Poland as a gangmaster.
The officials, who arrived with police at the property, wanted to speak to Miss Fleming, 36, about an application made in her name for extra money.
The couple told BBC Scotland that she had slipped ‘out of the door’ of their home in Inverkip, Inverclyde as she was scared of authority figures.
Asked if he had seen her since reporting her missing in October, Mr Cairney said: ‘Yes, she has been here once. Not here, not to the house, but we have seen her once.
He added that this had occurred within a month of her disappearing.
‘When we saw her she was just the way she left, contrary to earlier days,’ he said. ‘She was clean and behaved, she had stopped this shouting and bawling at you.’
Mr Cairney also said that he had spoken to Miss Fleming on the phone, adding: ‘She has come to no harm unless she has got harmed in the past couple of weeks.’
Avril, 56, (pictured) and Eddie, 75, reported her missing after being visited by benefits staff and now say she has been working in London and Poland as a gangmaster
Detectives from Police Scotland’s major investigations team have established that, apart from her carers, the last independent sighting of Miss Fleming was in December 1999
The Department for Work and Pensions is believed to have paid out thousands of pounds in benefits to Miss Fleming over the years, but when they received an application for more payments officials paid a visit to the home of her carers Edward Cairney and Avril Jones, in order to speak to Margaret.
It was then that police discovered no one but the couple has seen Miss Fleming since 1999.
Detectives from Police Scotland’s major investigations team – which normally probes murders – have established that, apart from her carers, the last independent sighting of Miss Fleming was at a family gathering on December 17, 1999.
Ms Fleming, 36, is thought to have lived with her father in Port Glasgow before he died in October 1995.
Mr Cairney also said that he had spoken to Miss Fleming on the phone, having seen her about a month after she was reported missing last year
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.
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.
Police Scotland has carried out a forensic search of the property and its grounds (shown)