Wrongly accused Birmingham postmaster returns for her dad

BBC News

2 days ago

A woman returning to her family Post Office business after being wrongly accused of theft in the Horizon scandal says she is doing it for her dad.Rooprit Gill ran the Wattville Road Post Office in Handsworth, Birmingham, which was started by her father. But that ended when, due to a faulty Post Office computer system - and like hundreds of other postmasters and mistresses - she was falsely said to have stolen money. Now, more than a decade on from an ordeal that left her feeling suicidal, she is about to work there again.She said her dad had been "devastated" by the accusation, "so for him I want to stand back there and say 'I didn't do it'."
Her alleged wrongdoing - for which she was later fully exonerated - meant the Post Office dismissed her from the branch, which was based within a shop also run by the family.While banished from the branch, taken over by a third party, she was able to continue working at the shop, which meant she still saw her old customers. Her dad - whom she said was among the first British Asian postmasters outside of London - died before her exoneration and the scale of the scandal was laid bare, although he had supported her through the situation.Ms Gill is due to get back the keys to the branch next week. She said she had been determined to take the helm once more. "I think it's going to be amazing," she said. "It's going to be emotional, but it's going to be exciting."But it comes after she lost her home, her car, and her reputation in the wake of the accusations.To try to balance the books and stay out of jail, she said she ended up missing card and mortgage payments. The first report from the official inquiry into the scandal said last month the events had had a "disastrous" impact on those accused.
Ms Gill first became aware of problems at her Post Office when accounts were falling short and she could not understand why."One day it would be one amount and the next day it would be a different amount. Figures were duplicating," she said."I just couldn't understand what the problem was or why."At the time, she had no idea that hundreds of other postmasters were in the same position as her.One morning, her world came crashing down around her."The auditors came and did a stock balance and realised how much was short and I was asked to leave - hand back the keys, there and then, and they brought in interims to run the Post Office the next day," she said."It was horrible. Absolutely horrible."
'I lost everything'
In the aftermath of her dismissal, Ms Gill and her husband's marriage suffered, with both knowing they had not taken any money and wondering where it had gone"I couldn't face anybody for a long time. I was depressed," she said."I lost my house, I lost my car, I lost everything."Things just got on top of me at one stage and I didn't want to be here, I tried to take my life. "Luckily now I'm here, but things could have been a lot different."The Post Office Horizon scandal broke into the public attention many years later, heightened by the ITV drama series Mr Bates vs The Post Office.Ms Gill said she felt angry over her experience, adding: "It was just anger not understanding why we didn't know other people had the same problem or why the Post Office hadn't done anything about it to rectify it and why it took a programme or a podcast for people to realise what was going on."
While Ms Gill has been exonerated, an "amazing" point in her life, several of her loved ones are not here to see it."I lost my husband, my mom also passed away after I'd been convicted," she said.While her father supported her after she was dismissed, selling a property to fund the missing money, he died before his daughter was cleared, and before news of the scandal became public."I just wish he'd been here to actually see or hear something, just a clip - maybe there's a chance," she said."But no. But I know he's watching, I know he knows."
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