THE woman behind the high-profile Lanarkshire Baby Bank is a former bankrupt who had debts of more than £450,000.

Bernadette Murphy, who fronted an event outside Holyrood last week in a bid to save the Baby Bank, which helps poor families, was also the joint owner of a business that went bust.

She said of her involvement in the Baby Bank: “I’ve got nothing to do with the financial side of things.”

In a separate development, it has emerged that a regulator has turned down the Baby Bank’s bid to become a charity.

Founded by Murphy, a grandmother who lives in Cleland, the Baby Bank receives essential items such as prams and nappies from the public and hands them over to families in poverty. More than 1,500 families are have reportedly to have been helped so far.

Murphy received a Kelly’s Heroes award – named after TV presenter Lorraine Kelly – and the organisation was recognised at the North Lanarkshire Voscar Awards.

She told the Sunday Herald that the Baby Bank had raised around £6,000 so far in PayPal donations, money that is used for running costs.

In recent weeks, the Baby Bank has also been making a public appeal for new accommodation, amid reports it is having to leave its Coatbridge premises this month.

The plea received extensive media coverage and Murphy and others staged an event outside Holyrood on Thursday, which was attended by MSPs including the SNP’s Fulton MacGregor.

The Herald:

Picture: Murphy (central, with black jacket) at the Holyrood rally

The Baby Bank is not a company or a charity – so it does not have to file accounts by law – but an application was made to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).

According to OSCR, organisations must meet a “charity test” before getting approval. However, in a statement, a spokesperson for OSCR said: “We have issued a notice to Lanarkshire Baby Bank refusing charitable status on the grounds that the organisation does not meet the charity test.

“We have set out our reasons in detail to the applicant. The applicant has a right to request us to review our decision and we would not wish to comment further as doing so might prejudice any review.”

Murphy is listed as the founder of the Baby Bank on her Facebook page and she recently made an “urgent” video plea on behalf of the venture.

“I’ve always been involved in charity work, my whole adult life,” she said. “I think we are a lifeline, although government would totally disagree. I’ve had every door slammed in my face.”

Public records reveal she has had a troubled financial history. Documents from Companies House show that her former firm, Bernadette Murphy Estates, was dissolved in 2011 after the company was “unable to pay its debts”.

The firm had previously been at the centre of an article in a tabloid newspaper about its alleged business dealings.

According to documents held by two government agencies, Elizabeth Bernadette Murphy was then sequestrated, the Scots word for bankruptcy, in 2012. The “level of debt” was listed as £453,234 by the Accountant in Bankruptcy body.

She applied for the sequestration herself and the bankruptcy was discharged around a year later.

Speaking to the Sunday Herald on Friday, she said of the OSCR decision: “It’ll be reviewed then. I haven’t actually looked at my emails.”

Asked if people should know about her previous financial problems, given that she is the founder of the Baby Bank, she said: “What has that got to do with helping people? And that’s one of the reasons why I want to help people.”

Asked who runs the financial side of the Baby Bank, she said: “If you want to come in and speak to all the trustees, we can make an appointment and you can come in.”