Redress process for Post Office Horizon victims could go on for years
More than 900 subpostmasters were wrongfully prosecuted by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon software made it look as though money was missing from their accounts.
The previous Conservative government said those who had their convictions quashed were eligible for £600,000 payouts – with victims such as Amanda and Norman Barber accepting the fixed offer.
Despite losing their business and home, the Warrington couple said they found it 'almost impossible' to provide the details required to have their case individually assessed so did not want to risk 'getting less'.
Unexplained shortfalls in their accounts at Thelwall Post Office eventually led to them being prosecuted over a deficit of £5,600 – despite using around £200,000 of their own money to attempt to balance the books.
Both received a community order of 12 months and 100 hours' community service.
Speaking about the redress process, Amanda, 55, said: 'We were being asked to produce evidence we simply couldn't get our hands on with regards to our losses as we are talking going back 15 years.
'We found it almost impossible to provide the details needed to go down the route of having our case individually assessed.
'It just didn't seem worth it. I think subpostmasters are still being left in an impossible situation when it comes to seeking true and full redress.
'Given the time it would take we simply couldn't risk a full assessment and getting less, particularly because the lack of documents we had.
'It got to the stage where, when the £600,000 was offered, it seemed the best way to bring years of torture to an end.'
Redress has been a key issue for subpostmasters since the scandal came to light, with many finding the various compensation schemes difficult to navigate.
Lead campaigner Sir Alan Bates previously described the various processes as 'quasi-kangaroo courts', telling The Sunday Times that the Department for Business and Trade 'sits in judgment of the claims and alters the goal posts as and when it chooses'.
The chairman of the Horizon IT inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams, is due to publish his findings on redress on Tuesday, with Amanda Barber saying she will join other subpostmasters in attending the report's publication event.
She said: 'We feel we just need to be there to hear what is said.
'Lives were ruined and compensation has been made too hard to get, and too little by far.'
One law firm involved in securing redress for victims, Hudgell Solicitors, said it still had more than 700 ongoing compensation cases to resolve.
Solicitor Neil Hudgell said the firm had agreed damages for more than 300 people, totalling £170 million, but said the redress process had 'far too much red tape to get through'.
He said: 'We have seen inconsistencies between the various compensation schemes, which remain over-engineered and over-legalistic, with far too much red tape to get through.
'There has also been a repeated failure to give the benefit of the doubt to subpostmasters in appropriate circumstances.
'It's made it far too long a process for so many people who have been through so much, and are now in the latter stages of their lives.
'It has been retraumatising for many, and increasing numbers are sadly passing away without seeing redress.'
Addressing how long it could take for all claims to be settled, the solicitor added: 'At the current speed, we are looking at another two to three years.'
Mr Hudgell said one client who was initially offered £50,000 has seen their offer rise to £500,000.
He added: 'It is not a one-off glitch, but a stark illustration of a very common issue.
'It has been a painful process for all, and ended with a new appeals process being confirmed earlier this year, in recognition that many people had been under-compensated.'
In a statement, the Department for Business and Trade said: 'We are grateful for the inquiry's work, which has revealed the immeasurable suffering that victims of the scandal have endured.
'This Government has quadrupled the total amount paid to affected postmasters to provide them with full and fair redress, with more than £1 billion having now been paid to over 7,300 claimants.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
10 hours ago
- The National
Post Office Horizon scandal broke more than just the legal system
Going out on circuit around the country, inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams heard sad stories from Ilfracombe to Inverness – each individual, but each with much in common. Postmasters' stories normally started well – in hope and new beginnings. I've had my eye on the shop for a while now. We'd like to operate our own branch. I think it's time to lay down roots in the community. We've been saving. This looks like a sound investment. Many of these men and women spoke of their plans to settle down with their families, settling what modest assets they had on the hope of securing a stable living in the heart of communities across the country – only for this very ordinary promise of living a very ordinary life to sour, and sour quickly. Security was the last thing these people got in return for their investment in the Post Office. READ MORE: Pat Kane: Scotland is heading back into a cycle of 'extraction without consent' The kit failed. Helplines gave them no help. Callers were told they were the only postmaster in the country whose Horizon terminals showed signs of bugging out. Phantom shortfalls in branch accounts accumulated, and inevitably, Post Office security goons came knocking. They came with audits, print-outs, sceptical faces, threats of dismissal, a change of locks and demands for full repayment under threat of prosecution. It seems fitting, therefore, for the first volume of the Post Office inquiry's findings to focus on the human impact of what went wrong, and the faltering and partial attempts by the British state to properly recognise and put right the terrible wrong this state company dealt to postmasters, their staff and their families over decades. In this volume, the judge focused on two key issues: the human impact and compensation. The human stories are now much better understood than they used to be, just a few years ago. It is still surprisingly difficult to pin down precisely how many people were affected by the Horizon scandal. Some were prosecuted, convicted and jailed for crimes they did not commit based on the failings in Fujitsu's system. Others found themselves in the dock but were acquitted – something like 50 to 60 people, by Sir Wyn's reckoning last week. Many others escaped the attentions of Post Office prosecutors, but instead, faced the sack. Postmasters whose contracts were terminated on the basis of their alleged dishonesty lost their shops, lost their business, and often as not, the mortgaged homes they relied on their livelihoods to service, becoming homeless. Many found themselves subject to other kinds of legal threats, facing civil court action demanding repayment of phantom debts they did not owe. Alan Bates tenaciously campaigned against the Post OfficeThis scandal was deadly. Sir Wyn concluded that at least 13 suicides were directly connected to Horizon shortfall allegations. Many postmasters disclosed suicidal ideation in the aftermath, which often involved huge financial and psychological stress as people sifted through the flotsam and jetsam of their lives, trying to keep themselves and their families afloat in the wake of the Post Office's allegations and sanctions. In some of the most powerful sections of last week's report, Sir Wyn reflects on the many 'genuinely moving accounts of the impact this had upon their immediate family'. Alan Bates, Jo Hamilton, Seema Misra – some of the most prominent postmasters are 'now well-known public figures'. But, he said, it is important to 'shine a light' on the significant number of other people who are 'far less well known but whose suffering has been acute'. Of Sir Wyn's 17 case studies, two focus on Scottish cases. The first is Susan Sinclair. She moved to Scotland in 1998 from America. In 2001, she began working as a court clerk in Ellen. Within months, she'd become postmistress of the branch nearby. Over the next year and a half, Horizon began to report shortfalls. A February 2003 audit disclosed an apparent shortfall of £10,700. Sinclair was interviewed by Post Office security goons, suspended and locked out of her branch. Later that month, she had her second encounter with PO investigators, who referred her case to the procurator fiscal, culminating in in her prosecution for embezzlement in 2004. She pled not guilty but was convicted by the sheriff. She ended up paying more than £10,700 to the Post Office. In September 2023, Ms Sinclair was the first person in Scotland to have her conviction quashed by the High Court. READ MORE: Keir Starmer's Donald Trump pandering proves the UK's global influence is fading The second Scottish case which Sir Wyn chose to highlight was Robert Thomson's. Rab has been quoted extensively in the Scottish media since interest in this story caught light. He was persuaded by his lawyer to plead guilty to charges of embezzlement from his Alloa Post Office. Following his conviction, there was significant adverse publicity in the local media. He was 'branded a thief'. Mr Thomson lived in a small rural community and the whole community knew of and believed in his conviction. This stigma was felt not only by Rab and his wife, but his two children, who were bullied at school in consequence of his conviction. This is one feature of this scandal that feels particularly troubling. Driven by its exaggerated suspicion of its own staff and misplaced faith in the infallibility of its accounting system, the Post Office did terrible things to its staff. But its false allegations also induced other people to act in ways which in retrospect do nobody any credit. Its suspicions were catching. In the Scottish human impact session in Glasgow, one postmaster – who eventually found himself being accused of being on the take after Horizon declared an apparent shortfall – talked about his sense of guilt at having accused and then dismissed two of his blameless staff after he concluded that if money was going missing and he wasn't responsible, one of them must have been responsible. 'I've apologised to them,' he said pointedly – but I was left with the distinct impression that this admission didn't entirely clear his conscience. Perhaps it shouldn't. I wonder how others in similar situations feel, confronted with the negative impact their own actions had on people affected. In Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has consistently depicted itself as a secondary victim of this scandal, whose good faith and trust was abused by the cynical manoeuvres of the Post Office. But even if you were misled, it was you who did the prosecuting, you who were the instrument of this injustice, you who remains – at least on some level – implicated. Local journalists who wrote up stories of postmasters being sent down may reasonably retort that they covered local court cases in good faith and in the public interest. Nobody would seriously suggest, I think, that they were not entitled to report who was convicted in local courts, particularly if the people involved had some community standing, particularly if they plead guilty. You wonder what all the local gossips and pharisees make of their behaviour now they know the targets of their whispering campaigns didn't deserve any of the hard words visited on them and their children. I suspect quite a few schoolyard bullies look back on their teenaged behaviour with regret. But it is difficult to escape the impression that it is was the whispered conversations in the supermarket, the pointed stares and being cut dead in the street by former friends which inflicted a significant part of the harm this scandal caused on people who found themselves caught up in it, their social identities spoiled by official suspicion and condemnation as crooks, thieves and embezzlers, exploiting public trust and helping themselves to the contents of your favourite granny's pension book. Even if you were deceived, even if you honestly believed these postmasters were guilty as charged, it was still you who stigmatised these people, still you who played an indispensable part of the great harm done to them, even with all this mitigation. READ MORE: Richard Murphy: Passing laws that destroy our freedoms is tyranny Continued denial, I suppose, is one response. Talking to one affected postmaster last year, she told me that she and her husband were still subject to a degree of community mistrust and hostility, even after ITV had broadcast its game-changing drama about the scandal in January 2024 and widespread community awareness spread that these people did nothing wrong. There's always a committed sceptic on hand to say 'no smoke without fire', determined in the teeth of all the evidence to believe some of these postmasters must have been guilty, and are only jumping on a convenient bandwagon to clear their convictions and get themselves some unmerited damages. But you wonder if even this reaction isn't its own kind of evasion. Dimly conscious of the monstrous self-reflection required by realising you've played a key part in what made this injustice go so deep down, all the way to the social nerve, it is easier to pretend you have no regrets, and nothing to answer for.
The National
10 hours ago
- The National
Scottish Tories splash £150k of taxpayer cash on 'media training'
The party spent a total of £154,700 on media training between March 2022 and March 2024, according to the Holyrood expenses register. Gen Comms Limited – which is led by its former director of media between 2000 and 2012, Ramsay Jones – benefitted to the tune of £118,200 in that timeframe from training the 31 Scottish Tory MSPs, including both 'individual' and 'group' broadcast training. Shorthand PR, meanwhile, which is led by the party's former head of media Adam Morris, also received £26,000 for 'written media' and 'social media' training in 2023 and 2024. READ MORE: Octopus Energy to pay £1.5 million for prepayment meter billing errors The funding was raised through contributions from Scottish Tory MSPs' support budgets, which are given to every MSP to help them carry out their official duties. But the Scottish Tory total is far higher than anything claimed by other parties – bolstered by their high media training spend. Using the same mechanism, Scottish Labour notably paid £30,000 in March 2024 to Ebor Political Consultants Limited – a consultancy run by former spin doctor Alan Roden. (Image: PA) MSPs from other parties have also undergone training. For example, Scottish Labour MSP Neil Bibby expenses £459 for video editing training for staff last year. Now SNP minister Angela Constance's staff underwent social media training in 2023 for £199. Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater spent £3000 on 'communication skills' training in 2023. Scottish Tory MSP Edward Mountain also paid Shorthand PR a total of £10,500 in three separate payments spanning January to March 2024 for 'consultancy fees for communications'. The more than £150,000 of taxpayer money spent by the Scottish Tories for media training comes as its leader Russell Findlay has pushed – to much fanfare – for Scotland to have its very own Department for Government Efficiency (Doge). In February this year, Findlay pledged to set up his own version of Elon Musk's powerful cost-cutting US government department. The Scottish Conservative leader said the Scottish version of Doge would be tasked with 'cutting waste, identifying savings and delivering better value for taxpayers'. An SNP source told the Sunday National that this story will be 'raising eyebrows among voters'. They added: 'Anyone watching Tory MSPs media performances will be demanding a refund.' Meanwhile, Scottish LibDem MP Alistair Carmichael said: "The best spin doctors and media training in the world could not make any difference when it comes to the car crash interviews we've seen from Conservative parliamentarians defending Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in recent years." The Scottish Greens have said it "raises ethics questions". '£155,000 is a lot of public funds to spend on media training over just two years, and I don't think anyone would argue they got value for money," MSP Maggie Chapman said. "It's right that elected representatives can get support and training to do their jobs, but it has to be within reason. And handing such large sums of money to former party colleagues raises further ethics questions." She added: 'Nobody will be surprised by the Tories wasting money. We still remember the Tory MPs shamelessly caught claiming for duck houses and moats on expenses. Not to mention the £700 million they spent on the illegal Rwanda scheme, or the £22 billion they cost bill payers by cutting energy efficiency schemes. 'For all their talk, when you actually look at the books, there's nobody better at wasting money than a Tory.' In response, a Scottish Conservative spokesperson said: 'This contract covered the delivery of specialist media training to all Scottish Conservative MSPs throughout the financial year. 'It was financed through pooled contributions drawn from the individual support budgets allocated to each MSP.' Morris from Shorthand PR said: 'We provide media support and training across business and the political spectrum, and were delighted to assist the Scottish Conservatives.' Gen Comms Limited didn't respond to a request for comment.
Scotsman
11 hours ago
- Scotsman
Over 100 Lib Dem activists demand reinstatement of Edinburgh MP Christine Jardine to frontbench roles
More than 100 Lib Dem activists from across the UK have signed an open letter to party chiefs demanding the reinstatement of Edinburgh West MP Christine Jardine after she was sacked from the frontbench. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... She was removed as Lib Dem spokesperson on Women and Equalities and on Scotland after she voted against a Tory amendment to the Welfare Bill instead of abstaining, as instructed by the party whips. But the open letter voices "deep misgivings and extreme concern" at the move. And it demands: "This decision must be reversed." Christine Jardine MP in the House of Commons Chamber Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ms Jardine, who had performed the frontbench roles for the past three years, explained in a letter to Lib Dem leader Ed Davey that she had voted against the amendment because of her late husband, Calum Macdonald. She wrote: "As you know, my late husband Calum, was bipolar. Several people around me have mental health conditions the amendment dismissed as 'minor', and not worthy of support. I could not in good conscience do anything other than vote against another Conservative attempt to remove help from those who need it the most. "Regardless of my personal circumstances, as Equalities Spokesperson, this is an equalities issue and I could not let down those who are relying on people in power to speak on their behalf." The open letter, addressed to Mr Davey and chief whip Wendy Chamberlain, calls for Ms Jardine's immediate reinstatement and an unreserved apology, as well as a review of the party's whipping policy. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It says: "At a time when equalities victories are being rolled back and progress is stopping on almost every avenue, the Liberal Democrats must be the party that stands up to be counted. "Christine has been a tireless fighter for equalities of all kinds, and has, as you have noted yourself in the not too distant past, served as the best equalities spokesperson we have ever had. "The whip to abstain on a repugnant Conservative amendment - that sought to politicise mental health support and harm the very people we claim to protect - should never have been issued. 'The Liberal Democrats have a brilliant record on mental health, and being the party to advocate for those with mental health issues - We should never be playing political games on such important issues."
