A WOMAN credited with helping countless people to escape crime and addiction in York has retired.

Pat Smith, 63, has stepped down as director after 23 years at the York Association For The Care And Resettlement Of Offenders (YACRO) in Walmgate.

She is responsible for significantly developing the charity, which helps ex-offenders in York to begin crime-free lives.

Ms Smith said she was inspired by her predecessor and YACRO’s founder, Muriel Hollinrake, who set the programme up to help give those released from prison a fresh start in life. She said: “It’s a fantastic scheme. I have walked away feeling really good about it and I am really pleased that it will carry on.

“There is a lot of expectation. If they work and do everything that is expected they go from hostel accommodation eventually into their own homes.

“If people won’t work with us we let them go.”

She said one of her most memorable success stories was a man who was extremely cynical about the scheme but engaged with it and it transformed his life.

Ms Smith said: “Later he wrote me a letter saying that he came to YACRO to work the system but soon realised that it was giving him an opportunity. He turned his life around and worked really hard.”

Michael Pavlovic, the new director of YACRO, said: “Pat was responsible for developing the scheme to the level where it’s really well-established and respected in the criminal justice field.

“Pat’s leadership and guidance of the staff has led to a significant number of them establishing law-abiding, independent lives.

“I said to her when she left that she can walk away with a sense of achievement of contributing to this community in a very real way.”

Ms Smith, of Copmanthorpe, said she now hoped to see more of her grandchildren and go on holiday.