For those of us keeping up with the Post Office Horizon Scandal- brought to the limelight once more by the new Mr Bates Vs The Post Office dramatization on television- it’s no secret that the faulty system has caused irreversible damage to many wrongfully accused postmasters and business owners.
For those unaware of the situation, we would just like to clarify; the Post Office’s transaction management system, Horizon, was discovered all too late to have some serious flaws; leading to wrongful accusations of fraud against postmasters and mistreatment of employees.
The scandal had a significant impact on many people’s livelihoods and resulted in a lot of controversy, as well as many legal battles.
The consequences were very significant; legal action had a devastating impact on many business owner lives, as some were even prosecuted and imprisoned, many shunned from their communities as rumours spread and stayed unanswered.
Due to this, Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells has offered to hand back her CBE, after facing pressure from the public over the scandal.
“The reality is there will be no justice on the matter,” retailer Raaj Chandarana from Tara’s Londis tells us, “We’ve been silent for years and can only hope Paula Vennells will be stripped of her CBE as a minimum level of accountability.
On a financial and mental level, we have no choice but to draw a line and move on.”
With more than a million people signed the petition calling for the title to be stripped and Downing Street admitting that it is “obviously the right decision” for Ms Vennells to return her CBE.
The public are now calling for Ms Vennells to return her £3million in bonus pay that she received in performance related perks.
Of course, retailers are undoubtedly angry; as no amount of compensation in numbers will be enough to equate to the lives ruined, tainted and some even lost in the process.
Retailer Jas Chatha from GoLocal Halifax shares his and his business’ story with us as victims of the Horizon scandal.
Jas starts, “We were victims of the Horizon system. We had a postmaster that had worked for us for years and when the Horizon system starting miscalculating end of day balances, shortages kept appearing.
We didn’t suspect anything, but thought maybe the post master was making mistakes- until we calculated the post office audit ourselves and realised the post office was in deficit of £7500. We notified the post office asked if they could send someone to do an audit on our post office.
The postmaster was told he could no longer work in the post office and we should sack him; a long term employee we had trust in. We thought we needed more proof to make sure it was not a post office error. Instead, we were asked to pay the shortage of £7500 which in the end, we did,”
Much like many other postmasters, Jas was forced to take money from his own business to fix discrepancies that didn’t exist; discrepancies caused by an ignored glitch in the Horizon system.
“We had to go for interviews with the post office and told it was going to be taken of us and they would put a new post master in place, and that post master would take all the commissions for salary and we would get nothing for the post office and no rent for the space.
We made up the difference and was only spared prosecution because we paid the shortfall. We got rid of the postmaster who was heartbroken and his family was accused of being thieves. We made an appeal, to no avail, and had the post office taken of us. Later on, we found out people were realising post office had made mistakes we wrote to the post office to look at our situation- it took about 2 years for them to come back to us asking for evidence, and even then kept delaying answers back to us. In the meantime, the post master had passed away.
We were offered the money back that we paid, but no compensation for loss of income, defamation of character, for making us look like thieves in the local community and again we rejected the claim. We ended up selling then store.”
Similarly to Jas, former sub-postmaster Michael Rudkin and his wife, Susan, were wrongly accused of stealing £44,000; a case that he’’d written personally to Ms Vennell after his wife’s prosecution, pleading for a further investigation into her case- only to be met with proverbial crickets.
“When it’s bad news, 10 people hear about it. But when it’s good news, only one or two seem to.” Mr Rudkin notes in a recent article with the BBC, in regards to people’s opinions of him and his wife barely shifting when Mrs Rudkin’s conviction was finally overturned in April 2021.
Much like many other postmasters, the Rudkins have refused to accept the £600,000 settlement put in place by the government, what much of the public see as a clutching-at-straws attempt at compensation.
The Horizon scandal has been dubbed as the “most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history”, with only 93 convictions being overturned so far; only 30 of them agreeing to the final compensation settlement- meaning, many victims are still fighting to clear their names.
Furthermore, Ms Vennells giving up her title also poses the question of what will Post Office chief executive Nick Reed do with the £400,000 bonus he pocketed in 2021-22; an ‘urgent explanation’ has been demanded from business minister Kevin Hollinrek, with the public wanting to know why Reed’s £400k bonus was linked to providing “all the necessary evidence and timely information”, an obligation that many believe should not have been rewarded.
After all, with the inquiry considering more delays by postponing hearings, it currently seems as though all of the wrong pockets are still being filled.
However, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has released a statement today, 10th January 2024, noting that he will “introduce a new primary legislation to make sure those convicted as a result of the Horizon scandal are swiftly exonerated and compensated,” after clarifying that all he wants is justice and compensation for the 700+ people wrongfully convincted.
As well as this, Sunak has pledged a “new upfront payment of £75,000 for some 555 sub-postmasters pursued in civil cases after they had been forced to make up account shortfalls that were created by the Horizon system.
Our prayers and thoughts at C-Talk go out to all of those affected by and involved in this scandal. May you all receive the justice you deserve, and may this miscarriage of justice never happen again in our sector.
