Amy Winehouse looked after homeless burglar who tried breaking into her house, says father Mitch at charity gala

He also spoke about the difficulty of setting up The Amy Winehouse Foundation at a gala

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Amy Winehouse’s charitable streak has been praised by the late singer’s father at a gala celebrating the work of a foundation set up in her name.

The Amy Winehouse Foundation Gala was set up following the singer’s death in 2011 and aims to help young people overcome drug and alcohol problems.

Mitch Winehouse said his daughter once looked after a homeless man who broke into her home

“A burglar broke into her house and she heard him downstairs,” he said. “She went downstairs and he saw it was Amy and he said ‘sorry, I didn’t know it was you, if I had known it was your house I wouldn’t have burgled it’.

“She said, ‘well, can I get you something to eat?’ She ended up looking after him”.

Winehouse also criticised the government for failing to provide the help and support that young people need when battling addiction, saying it would have been “easier” for them to raise money to set up a charity for cats or donkeys.

“You try to raise money for homeless young people or people suffering from drug addiction or alcohol, still the prevailing thought among a lot of people is, ‘well no-one forced them to drink’.”