Latest news with #NickWallis
Sunday Post
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Sunday Post
Nick Wallis says Post Office victims let down again by lawyers
Get a weekly round-up of stories from The Sunday Post: Thank you for signing up to our Sunday Post newsletter. Something went wrong - please try again later. Sign Up Victims of the Post Office scandal are receiving compensation at an appalling rate, according to the broadcaster who has chronicled the story for the past 15 years. Nick Wallis, who made a BBC Panorama documentary on the subject, wrote an in-depth book and was a consultant on ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office, says he is 'deeply suspicious of the way this process has been carried out'. More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted after Fujitsu's Horizon accounting system, used by the Post Office, made it appear there was a shortfall in money from branch accounts. It has been described as Britain's biggest miscarriage of justice in modern times. © Supplied The victims' convictions have since been quashed and many are pursuing financial compensation, but the process has proved neither speedy nor straightforward. Sir Alan Bates, who has led the campaign on behalf of victims, said earlier this month that it could be November 2027 before all the claims are completed based on the current rate of progress. He suggested taking legal action against the government may be the quickest way for claimants to tackle the delays. His comments came as the oldest surviving victim, 92-year-old Betty Brown from County Durham, rejected an offer of less than 60% of what she had claimed. 'It's appalling how the sub-postmasters, having been absolutely broken by the system and somehow finding the courage and wherewithal to steer a way through to expose the scandal, are still not being given even 80% of what they're claiming a lot of the time,' Wallis said. 'You look at Janet Skinner, who was sent to prison in her 30s and has had to provide five separate expert reports in order to persuade the government that her claim is valid. Her barrister said he's been working in civil litigation for 30 years and has never had to ask a client to produce five separate expert witness reports. It seems to be dragging things out, whether it's for the sake of it or from lawyers acting cynically. 'The government is paying for solicitors to put together expertly assessed claims for sub-postmasters, which they are professionally obliged to do in the best interest of their client, but certainly within the bounds of what is reasonable, and the government is fighting the big claims tooth and nail. I don't understand why.' There has been a public demand for prosecutions related to the scandal, but Wallis is not convinced those will happen. 'I suspect the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) will lose all credibility as an organisation if they don't prosecute someone, but who they will prosecute and whether that person or people will ever be convicted, well, if you look at the way we've dealt with scandals in the past – no one's gone to jail for the infected blood scandal, Hillsborough, Windrush, the financial crisis,' he continued. The journalist and broadcaster will be in Scotland next month at the Boswell Book Festival, where he'll talk about his book, The Great Post Office Scandal, and its follow-up, The Great Post Office Cover-Up, which will be released after the forthcoming publication of the public inquiry report. He will be joined at the event in Dumfries House in Ayrshire by Rab Thomson, a sub-postmaster from Alloa who was wrongly convicted of theft in 2006. Wallis has talked to hundreds of victims and says hearing their stories never becomes easier. 'They all have similar themes but each has a killer detail that stops you in your tracks,' he said. 'It's caused such generational trauma. I'm reading a book just now about the blood scandal, the fantastic Death In The Blood by Caroline Wheeler, and there are lots of similarities as far as the bureaucratic intransigence and cover-up. 'While the Post Office victims weren't directly physically harmed like those who received infected blood transfusions, it broke so many of them and drove many to horrendous mental health conditions, attempted suicide, and tore families apart. It caused arguments between partners, created distance with their children as parents tried to protect them, and triggered trauma among kids who thought what was happening to their families was somehow their fault, or caused resentment because they didn't have the childhood others did.' Wallis was hosting BBC Radio Surrey's breakfast show in 2010 when he learned about the scandal. He looked after the station's Twitter account and picked up a message from a local cab company hoping to bid for their taxi account. 'We didn't have a taxi account, so I asked if some of his drivers would come on air and tell a few of their great stories. He said he had a story.' Davinder Misra told Wallis about his pregnant wife, Seema, being sent to jail due to shortfalls in her Post Office accounts. Within an hour, Wallis was chatting to Alan Bates, who had by then already set up the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance, and reading the investigation done by Computer Weekly the year before. 'It didn't take me long to realise there was something serious going on,' Wallis said. Yet there was frustration when he couldn't circulate the story to a wider audience. He said: 'We would put something out that I thought was significant and it had no effect whatsoever, or I would write to several newspapers to see if they would get interested in it and I received a lacklustre response. 'In saying that, there's been some brilliant editors and journalists who've clocked it and said: 'Let's do something about this.' When I did the first Panorama in 2015, that was the acme of broadcast journalism as far as I was concerned, and after that I thought: 'I better write a book.' I kept plugging away, but I wasn't thinking: 'Now we'll do an ITV drama which will reach millions more.'' That, however, is exactly what happened. Mr Bates vs The Post Office went out in January 2024 and brought the scandal into the public consciousness. The reaction from viewers ensured the victims' fight would no longer remain in the background. 'I've been trying to rationalise it ever since,' Wallis said. 'I got a call from one of the executive producers after it went out and she said they had never seen anything like it. The rage and the response from the public told news editors that this was rating. It was amazing, the first five months of last year felt like a whirlwind and maelstrom.' He added: 'What you find with the Post Office victims is they're very stoic, hard-working people. They put a brave face on, but the trauma is never far from the surface. 'I found it deeply affecting talking to them about their stories. Once I stopped being affected by it, I got angry and that can be useful energy because it motivates you to try to do something.' Victim blamed himself for his mother's death © Supplied Rab Thomson had his 2006 conviction quashed last year by the Court of Session. He had taken over the running of the Post Office in Cambus, near Alloa, from his mother Margaret in 1999, but was prosecuted five years later after an audit found a shortfall of around £5,700. In his witness statement to The Post Office Horizon Inquiry, Mr Thomson described the impact the wrongful conviction had on him and his family. He described the humiliation and shame he felt within the close-knit community, the financial pressures, and the teasing his two sons faced at school. His mother became a recluse and when she died he blamed himself for breaking her heart. His depression became so bad that he went to a local bridge to end his life but changed his mind at the last moment. Mr Thomson will be in conversation alongside Nick Wallis at the event at Boswell Book Festival, the world's only festival of biography and memoir. The talk comes just a few weeks after Mr Thomson launched a support group for Scottish victims of the Post Office scandal. The Scottish Postmasters for Justice and Redress Group was established to focus on victims who are unaware of how they can be exonerated or what redress options are available to them. The organisation says it has learned that many former postmasters covered losses in their post office using their own funds to avoid conviction and therefore believe the compensation schemes do not apply to them. The Scottish Government identified 141 potential cases after the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Bill became law in June 2024. While it oversees legalities such as quashing convictions, financial compensation is handled by the UK Government. Nick Wallis and Rab Thomson in conversation with Sheena McDonald, Boswell Book Festival, May 10
BBC News
24-02-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Darlington 'lifeline' community fund scrapped by borough council
A "lifeline" funding programme which supported community groups has been Borough Council's Stronger Communities Fund had allowed councillors to give £1,000 a year to groups that enhanced local Party councillor Anna-Maria Toms criticised axing the scheme and said it was important to give residents money they could Labour's Nick Wallis, cabinet member for children and young people, said the funding was something the council could no longer afford. Toms said the scheme had recently been used to help a group hold weekly events at a church and connect residents with a warm space to combat loneliness."It is the only part of the council budget that can be directly influenced by residents to support them in ways that they choose for their local communities," she said."This can be a lifeline for vulnerable residents to access other services." Cost of fund The money had also supported non-profit groups with rent or events, had provided equipment for Brownies and Guides groups and had paid for park benches and play Stronger Communities Fund was launched in 2019 and cost about £50,000 overall, according to the Local Democracy Reporting only 23 out of 50 councillors used the funding over the last year.A joint Conservative and Green Party motion to keep the Stronger Communities Fund failed by 23 votes to 27. Wallis said to keep the fund would be "financial incompetence"."We are scrambling around for every penny and the opposition just don't get it," he said. Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
05-02-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Darlington SEND pupils wait more than three years for autism diagnosis
Children in a borough are waiting up to three and a half years to be diagnosed for autism and ADHD, as well as accessing therapy, an inspection has findings come from a review of special education needs and disability (SEND) services in Darlington by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC).It found Darlington Borough Council and the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), which are responsible for planning and commissioning the services, had improved SEND provision since a previous report in Buckley, chief delivery officer for the ICB, said he was pleased progress had been recognised and acknowledged the work needed to "develop the diagnostic service offer". The review found there were "inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people" across the SEND services in Darlington, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Health officials have been told to create a strategic action plan in response to the inspection. 'Frustrating process' There was a lack of a defined process to assess and support those with a learning disability, according to the report, meaning it was difficult for families and professionals to navigate what support was also experienced delays in the delivery of some health services, including trying to access home equipment. "These delays and complicated service specifications can be frustrating for families to navigate," the report review, which was carried out in November, found the partnership's leaders worked closely to improve added children and young people in care who had SEND were successfully prepared for Nick Wallis, cabinet member for children and young people, said the report showed services had continued to added: "This is thanks to the hardworking and committed staff working across the partnership and the local children and families who we listen to and work with to develop services and plans."
