Latest news with #PostOfficeHorizon
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Simon Cowell slams Post Office as postmasters choir perform 'a massive F you'
Britain's Got Talent judge Simon Cowell gave Hear Our Voice a glowing review as they performed in the final, revealing that their win would be "a massive F you to a certain group of people who deserve it". Speaking about the choir - made up of people affected by the Post Office Horizon scandal - who performed an original song in tonight's final, Simon said: "It was so emotional that first audition and I was so happy when the public voted you as the winners because it told us that the public haven't forgotten about you and they really, really want you to succeed, get justice. "I know we said it quite a lot last time but I'm absolutely thrilled that you're at the final and if you won, it would be a massive F you to a certain group of people who deserve it."
Scotsman
21-05-2025
- Scotsman
Sheku Bayoh inquiry: Senior counsel linked to Post Office case appointed as Lord Bracadale comes under fire
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, 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... The long-running public inquiry into the events surrounding the death of father-of-two Sheku Bayoh in police custody has appointed an additional senior counsel to its legal team. The inquiry scrutinising the death of the 31-year-old, who died in May 2015 after being restrained on the ground by six police officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, has appointed Jason Beer KC, who joins senior counsel, Angela Grahame KC, and senior counsel, Laura Thomson KC. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Mr Beer, the head of 5 Essex Chambers, specialises in public inquiries, inquests, public law and police law. He has served a key role in several high-profile cases, including the Post Office Horizon inquiry, the Thirwall inquiry, and those into the Grenfell disaster and the death of Dawn Sturgess. Lawyers involved in the Sheku Bayoh inquiry have been reprimanded for inappropriate use of mobile phones in the hearing room. | PA The next hearing dates It comes as the inquiry announced its next hearing dates will take place on June 12 and 13. The hearing will focus on the fairness of the conduct and procedure adopted by the inquiry's chair, Lord Bracadale, in meeting the families of Mr Bayoh. The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) has questioned the former High Court judge's impartiality, and last month intimated a petition for a judicial review of the inquiry after announcing it had 'lost confidence' in the proceedings. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It is understood that Lord Bracadale, who has helmed the inquiry since 2020, will consider whether he should step down from the role in the aftermath of the hearing. Should he do so, it would result in significant delays to the inquiry's work. Jason Beer KC has been appointed to the inquiry team. Picture: PA | PA The Sheku Bayoh inquiry's costs Since the statutory inquiry began in November 2020, it has cost more than £23.7 million. The inquiry has completed the process of gathering evidence and was due to hear closing submissions. After the concerns surrounding Lord Bracadale were first raised, Sadif Ashraf, the solicitor to the inquiry, wrote to all parties in March, pointing out the engagement of families was 'crucial to the effectiveness' of the inquiry. He stressed that if the inquiry failed to obtain and retain the confidence of the families, its effectiveness would be prejudiced. Lord Bracadale's conduct Mr Ashraf said since the start of the inquiry's work, Lord Bracadale had publicly expressed his intention to keep the families 'at the heart' of the inquiry, and considered it 'reasonable and appropriate" to meet members of the Bayoh families "from time to time" to reassure them, maintain their confidence in its work, and encourage them to participate fully in it. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Lord Bracadale has chaired the inquiry since it began its work in November 2020. Picture: PA | PA The first meeting took place in November 2021, followed by further meetings in April and November 2022, and January and December last year. Mr Ashraf's letter noted the purpose of the meetings was "to address issues relating to the welfare of family members as the inquiry progressed', and the impact on them of the inquiry. "The chair made it clear that anything of an evidential nature would require to be examined in evidence in the inquiry," Mr Ashraf said.
Pembrokeshire Herald
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Pembrokeshire Herald
Pembrokeshire postmaster Tim Brentnall through to BGT final with Post Office choir
A PEMBROKESHIRE man once wrongly convicted during the Post Office Horizon scandal has reached the final of Britain's Got Talent as part of a moving choir performance that has captured the public's attention. Tim Brentnall, from Roch near Newgale, was prosecuted in 2010 after a £22,000 shortfall appeared at his branch — one of 736 sub-postmasters caught up in the Post Office's faulty Horizon computer system. Now, Mr Brentnall is one of the key members of the 'Post Office Scandal Choir,' which earned a place in the final of the ITV talent show following a powerful performance in Saturday's semi-final (May 18). The group performed 'Something Inside So Strong' and received a standing ovation from the judges and audience. Viewers at home voted them through to next weekend's live final. Mr Brentnall, who appeared as the choir's spokesperson on the night, told the audience: 'We're here to share our story and hopefully bring something positive out of everything that's happened.' His conviction was quashed in 2021, after years of campaigning exposed serious flaws in the Horizon IT system and the way the Post Office handled the resulting cases. A public inquiry into the scandal is ongoing, with calls for faster compensation and greater accountability. The choir was formed earlier this year to bring together former sub-postmasters affected by the scandal. Their appearance on Britain's Got Talent has brought renewed national attention to their experiences and efforts to rebuild. The Britain's Got Talent final airs on Sunday, May 26 at 7:30pm on ITV1. Watch their semi-final performance in the video below.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Former footballers claim ‘financial grooming' took them to ‘hell and back'
Politicians, campaigners and former footballers have protested at the 'financial grooming' of Premier League stars who claim they were persuaded to put their money into failed investment schemes that led to them being accused of tax avoidance and faced with enormous penalties from HM Revenue & Customs. A host of peers, MPs, lawyers and experts in policing and tax laws gathered in Westminster on Monday night to hear from alleged victims of investment and pension fraud and their subsequent treatment by HMRC. Related: More than 500 footballers may have lost up to £1bn due to bad advice The launch of the investment fraud committee, an all‑party parliamentary group, featured harrowing testimony from several victims over the course of three hours and opened with a heavy focus on issues that are understood to have affected hundreds of former footballers. Sources said that many former players whose careers peaked in the 1990s have become unwell and struggled with their mental health because of their financial problems. The former Manchester United and England striker Andy Cole, the former Leeds striker Brian Deane, the former Arsenal and Liverpool midfielder Michael Thomas and the former Liverpool and Fulham midfielder Danny Murphy were among those who attended the meeting. Murphy, who has become a leading pundit for the BBC and TalkSport since his retirement, was hit with a £2.5m tax bill after investing in a film scheme that promised tax breaks to investors. The former England international lost a court case in 2019 over £1m he borrowed from the private bank Coutts to invest in the scheme. Deane and Murphy have been at the forefront of the former players' response and have taken extensive guidance from Carly Barnes-Short, a lawyer who is co-chairing the IFC with the Conservative MP Sarah Bool. Barnes-Short spoke of a 'huge injustice' and said some footballers had been exploited during their playing careers by trusted financial advisers. The campaigners argue it was wrong that footballers who invested in failed film schemes later received huge tax bills, penalties and demands for interest payments from HMRC. Comparisons were made with the Post Office Horizon scandal. Murphy offered insight into how bad actors preyed on the naivety of young footballers. 'I couldn't think of a more brilliant place than a football club to find victims,' he said. Murphy explained that young professionals often turned to older teammates and managers for advice on how to manage their money and were then introduced to financial advisers who quickly sought to gain their trust. The 48-year-old said that what occurred was grooming. Murphy, who said there was no intention to avoid tax, talked about how people would insert themselves in players' lives before getting them to agree to investments later down the line. 'Our option [for investment] was these people,' he said. 'It's not footballers, it's young men being manipulated. People can't understand why you got into this position. It makes you feel silly – it adds to the shame. People have been through hell and back. Some are still there.' Murphy talked about former players experiencing depression, anxiety, financial ruin and family breakups. He claimed that HMRC does not have the desire or competence to target the perpetrators of investment fraud. Deane said he found himself in a similar position to Murphy after retiring. He said some people had been pushed to the brink of suicide. 'I watched it break friends' marriages,' Deane said. 'It affects your health and wellbeing.' Alex Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds Central and Headingley, echoed Murphy by describing it as 'financial grooming'. He said players lost money to fraudsters and criticised HMRC for going after victims of crime. The meeting was also attended by Caroline Nokes, the deputy speaker, and Lady Newlove, the victims' commissioner. John Mann questioned why HMRC pursued what he described as 'notional income' due to the players had the investments succeeded. 'It isn't real money,' Lord Mann said. 'It's potential money. This is what they're hounding people over. I allege HMRC cannot hire people with the skills to address complex fraud.' A spokesperson for HRMC said: 'We sympathise with people who may have lost money by entering such arrangements and handle these on a case-by-case basis, taking the wellbeing of all taxpayers seriously. Anyone who is worried about a tax liability should contact us as soon as possible to talk about options.'
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Yahoo
Post Office scandal survivors have faced deep trauma, study finds
Survivors of the Post Office Horizon scandal have experienced deep trauma and can be left feeling re-victimised, a study has found. Academics have shown how deeply lives have and continue to be affected by the scandal, which hit the public consciousness following the broadcast of the Bafta-winning ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office. The study reveals how the trauma of the Post Office's misconduct has rippled out through victims families' lives and how many have been re-victimised at each stage of their fight for justice. The research from the University of Exeter and UCL lays bare how the stigma of false accusation and financial ruin devastated the lives of subpostmasters and those close to them. It also shows how having to engage with an adversarial legal system to fight for justice, and bureaucratic and slow redress schemes, have often caused secondary re-victimisation. Their experiences highlight that there is a need to reform the legal system so it better serves victims, the experts say. The research report outlines how delays to justice, and legalistic and adversarial procedures have caused and exacerbated psychological and emotional harm. This has left many subpostmasters feeling retraumatised over the years. They are distrustful of the institutions of government and mechanisms of justice, as well as the Post Office, and whilst many have drawn positives from the inquiry, some do not yet feel they have the full truth about what happened. The report, by Dr Sally Day, Professor Richard Moorhead and Professor Rebecca Helm, from the University of Exeter, and Dr Karen Nokes, from UCL, was carried out as part of their Post Office project. They interviewed 26 former subpostmasters, six partners, two children and one sibling. Dr Day said: 'We would like to express our deepest and heartfelt thanks to all those who agreed to help us in this project. 'What is clear from our interviews is the complex harms experienced by those affected and their loved ones. 'We found adversity and sacrifice but also stories of determination, hope and solidarity.' Professor Moorhead said: 'The thing that stands out from this work is the way an unjust accusation by the Post Office has spread through the lives of those accused and their families. 'With the exception of the ongoing inquiry, formal responses have tended to be cold and adversarial, which has been harmful to victims.' Dr Nokes said: 'Many subpostmasters went from being highly respected and central to their local community to being publicly vilified, and labelled a thief, for something they hadn't done. 'Some experienced aggressive and distressing harassment and victimisation, including being spat at, and receiving abusive letters, phone calls and emails. 'There were clear 'ripple effects' – the reputational damage often extended to their families and people affected couldn't get away from the stigma.' This work builds on two previous studies conducted by this project team. One documented high levels of PTSD and depression among victims and survivors. A follow-up survey in 2024 examined the ripple effect of harms from the scandal on 'secondary victims' such as partners and children, who had similar, extraordinary levels of PTSD and depression.
