A MUM has told of how she tidied up after her Ukrainian refugee guest and gave her cash – only for the woman to report her to the police for slavery.
Hannah Debenham, 42, says she only asked the woman who she hired as an au pair to do one thing – clean up after herself.
The Ukrainian, who cannot be named for legal reasons, then ran to the cops claiming she had been treated as a modern-day slave.
Hannah said she was then quizzed at a police station and faced a hellish two-month investigation after the claims.
She was accused of using the refugee as "a slave and full-time child minder for little to no pay under the disguise of assisting her in the Ukrainian settlement scheme".
The mum-of-two said her's and the woman's relationship came to pieces just three weeks after she helped the Ukrainian and her children to the UK.
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Hannah says the 36-year-old then phoned the cops after she was "just for asking somebody to tidy up".
She told The Sun Online: “All I asked her was to use the shoe cupboard and first of all, I started tidying up after her.
“She would put her shopping bags anywhere she wanted when she came in.
“She left crumbs and plates everywhere. I found it disrespectful.
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“I never asked her to clean."
The East Sussex mum added: “I gave her £160 towards her airfare and for shopping for her daughter to go back to school.
“She was free to come and go as she pleased."
Hannah called the slavery allegation "malicious", adding: “I was devastated."
And, she said, the whole process with speaking to the police was "terrifying".
Hannah added: “When my manager saw the news, he was so shocked.
“If I were cautioned I wouldn’t have been able to progress in my work.
“The police should’ve been protecting me from people like her.”
The Debenhams found the woman on an au pair website where she was advertising herself.
I never asked her to clean.
Hannah is now warning families to be thorough with who they hire.
She said: “She said she was an English teacher in Ukraine for 16 years but her daughter didn’t speak an English at all.
“She spoke a little bit of English herself.”
Hannah said the woman was also going out and leaving her daughter in the their house.
She added: “She wasn’t a full time child minder, she was an au pair, but she hadn’t even started looking after my son yet before she left.
“I was going to pay her monthly but she left after three weeks.
“I asked her to leave because we had disagreements.
“It is a relationship built on trust and I couldn’t trust her with my son."
She added: “Always get a character reference."
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The Ukranian woman also said she was "made to work most days, looking after the children and expected to clear up and tidy up the house", a report claimed.
But the case was dropped when no evidence was found.
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