A FORMER Gwent pub landlady spoke of her relief at the end of a "nightmare" after she was cleared of theft and fraud charges.

Heather Davies, 44, a former licensee of The Porters public house in Blackwood, was found not guilty of ten charges of theft, forgery and obtaining monetary transfer by deception at Newport Crown Court.

She had been accused by her former business partner, Jonathan Smith, of stealing around £17,500 from his bank account while he recovered from an alcohol addiction.

Mr Smith had accused Miss Davies of forging cheques for sums up to £10,300 in his name and using his debit card to make payments and withdraw £1,200 from a cash machine.

Last night, Miss Davies, of Highfield Road, Pontllanfraith, described the whole ordeal as "murder" and said her health suffered as a result, suffering a mini-stroke in March 2006.

She also has four daughters, aged 12, 13, 14 and 24, who she tried to keep out of the court case to stop them from getting distressed.

"I tried to keep it to myself so no-one else got involved or got upset by it," said Miss Davies, adding that her and her family would now move on from the incident.

Miss Davies, who is currently looking for work, said the past 12 months have been difficult: "You can't actually do anything because this is always in the back of your mind."

But after being cleared of all charges, Miss Davies said: "Now the weight is off my mind, I can now move forward and start enjoying myself again, because I haven't been able to.

"It's a relief now that it's all over, it's been a nightmare for everybody, its a relief that justice has been done and I can piece my life back together."

Mr Smith and Miss Davies were a couple when she was 17 and knew each other from living in Blackwood.

They separated shortly after and met again by chance in early 2005 and went into business together at The Porters pub in Blackwood in January 2006.

Mr Smith had to enter rehabilitation in summer 2006 for an alcohol problem which Miss Davies claimed had changed him from "happy go lucky" into someone who had "fallen to pieces".

The court heard that while in rehabilitation, Mr Smith left his cheque book, debit card and PIN to use for emergencies and for Miss Davies to manage his bills.

The payments in question included cheques for £10,336.27 made out to a company called SRM Ltd and £5,544.70 to cover Miss Davies daughter's boarding school fees.

Mr Smith had claimed he knew nothing of the transactions until he was contacted by the Abbey National bank's fraud team.

But Miss Davies told the court she had the consent of Mr Smith to make the payments to make up for money she said he owed her.