Post Office workers wrongly accused of stealing have highlighted that many of them are still waiting for compensation four years after winning a landmark court case proving their innocence.
Between 1999 and 2015 the Post Office relentlessly pursued branch owner-operators across the UK for alleged theft, fraud and false accounting, despite knowing that there were faults in Horizon IT software they were using, resulting in more than 700 prosecutions.
The scandal, frequently described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history, has now been dramatised in a series currently airing on ITV.
A group of Post Office operators won a high court case in 2019, which ruled the convictions were wrongful. However, that was after the prosecution process had ruined lives and had been linked to four suicides, while dozens of victims had died without receiving compensation.
“Some have been waiting over 20 years and suffering for far too long,” said Alan Bates, who is played by Toby Jones in the TV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, speaking to the Mirror. “It’s money they are owed. Don’t extend the deadline for payments because you can’t extend people’s lives.”
Noel Thomas, who was sentenced to nine months in prison in 2006 after being prosecuted but whose conviction was quashed in 2021, said: “I might never see [full compensation] because a lot of my friends have gone. A lot of people I met from this process have passed away.”
Others have told heartbreaking stories about the financial and personal ramifications of being prosecuted and convicted to the public inquiry into the scandal.
Siobhan Sayer was separated from her distressed six-month-old daughter when investigators visited her home in 2008 seeking £18,000 in funds missing from her Post Office business.
Pauline Thompson, who ultimately avoided jail, spoke of how she was sentenced on the day her granddaughter was born.
Lee Castleton, who called the Post Office’s helpline 91 times as he suspected the Horizon IT system was at fault, had to represent himself in court as he could not afford a lawyer and was made bankrupt after a two-year legal battle to try to clear his name.
A member of the Post Office’s legal team told the inquiry they knew he would not be able to pay costs of £321,000 if he lost but the state-owned company wanted to “show the world” it would defend the Horizon system.
The 2019 ruling paved the way for millions of pounds of future payouts, and led to the court of appeal quashing the convictions of workers who were wrongly accused of committing crimes, but there have been concerns about delays to the payments and further blunders – including tax being charged on the compensation.
By last month, 142 appeal case reviews had been completed out of 900 people convicted during the scandal, with 93 convictions overturned, while 54 cases had the conviction upheld, withdrawn or were refused permission to appeal.
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A total of £24m has been paid out in relation to overturned convictions.
In September, ministers announced that every post office operator whose wrongful conviction over the Horizon IT scandal had been overturned would receive £600,000 in compensation from the government.
The overturned convictions process is one of three different compensation schemes that have been set up as the scandal has developed.
More than £130m has so far been paid to about 2,500 postmasters across the three schemes. However, last month it emerged that the Post Office has almost halved the amount set aside for payouts as fewer owner-operators than expected have won or brought appeals.
The Post Office said in its annual results covering the year to the end of March that it was now holding £244m for compensation payments related to overturned convictions, down from £487m a year ago, after 38% of appeals against convictions were either turned down, withdrawn or unsuccessful.
“We’re doing all we can to right the wrongs of the past, as far as possible, and to date offers of compensation totalling more than £138m have been made to around 2,700 postmasters, the vast majority which have been agreed and paid,” a spokesperson for the Post Office said. “Interim payments continue to be made in other cases which have not been resolved.”