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Times
12-07-2025
- Times
Stolen childhoods of the Post Office scandal: ‘I lost all my mates'
Adi Misra will never forget the day his mother was sent to prison. It was November 11, 2010. It was also his tenth birthday when Seema Misra, eight weeks pregnant, was sentenced to 15 months in prison at Guildford crown court for stealing £74,000 from her Post Office branch. 'I came back from school and no one was there,' recalls Adi Misra, now 24. 'After that, things just went sideways.' Misra also remembers his father coming home covered in bruises, having been beaten and racially abused on the street after news got out of his wife's conviction. Their family shop in West Byfleet, Surrey, was graffitied. Many of his close friends — spurred on, he thinks, by their parents — broke contact with him. The plight of the hundreds of subpostmasters and subpostmistresses caught in the Post Office scandal remains shocking. They developed depression, were bankrupted and evicted. At least 13 were driven to suicide. Less well known, however, is the enormous toll that it took on their children. Last week Sir Wyn Williams published the first volume of the Post Office inquiry's final report, in which he acknowledged the 'very significant suffering' of family members after the failure of the Horizon IT system led to false accusations of theft. The report came with 19 recommendations, one of which was that a compensation scheme be established for the children hurt by the scandal. It will be administered by the charity Lost Chances, set up in March for the children of wronged subpostmasters. The charity relies on a GoFundMe page for funding. Katie Burrows, who runs it, and whose mother was a subpostmistress convicted — and exonerated — of theft in Derby, says that although the group had met representatives of the Post Office, in November, and Fujitsu, which developed and maintained Horizon, in March last year, neither company had donated a penny. 'We shared deeply painful stories and all we wanted was a simple donation, which all big companies can do these days,' she says. 'We have received nothing.' Nigel Railton, the Post Office chairman, has previously made a 'clear and unequivocal apology' to everyone affected by the scandal. A Fujitsu spokesman said: 'We have apologised for, and deeply regret, our role in sub-postmasters' suffering. We hope for a swift resolution that ensures a just outcome for the victims. Although many children of subpostmasters are relieved to have had their pain recognised, they are also still dealing with the damage the Post Office inflicted on their vital early years. 'You can't turn back time,' says Adi Misra. 'The damage has been done.' Although Adi's parents didn't tell him the full story until he was 18, the shadow of the scandal blighted his childhood. 'I lost all my mates,' he recalls. 'I moved cricket clubs every season because it got a bit weird. I moved school in the end. Every time it was because people found out I'm the son of Seema Misra.' Millie Castleton, the daughter of Lee Castleton, a prominent campaigner for the subpostmasters, also experienced bullying at school. In 2007 the Post Office ordered her father to pay back £23,000 and took him to court in the only civil claim the Post Office brought against a subpostmaster. When he lost he was ordered to pay the Post Office's £321,000 legal fees. Millie Castleton remembers being eight years old, sitting on the staircase and listening to her parents frantically trying to understand what had gone wrong with the computer system. 'It was so confusing,' says Millie, now 29 and a history supply teacher, with a warm Yorkshire accent. 'As a child I had that feeling that my dad's not done anything wrong.' Kids on the school bus would shout at her: 'Didn't your dad steal a load of money?' 'It paints a target on your back,' she says. She was spat at, called names. 'Kids are kids, they repeat what their parents say … it's just a bit difficult to think about, really.' She never told her parents about what she was going through. 'I didn't want them to worry at all.' • Alan Bates: Postmasters are still being failed by the state At weekends, she would tell her parents she was meeting friends and take the bus into Scarborough. Instead, she would walk around all day on her own. 'I'd say I was meeting whatever girls I could name at the time,' she says. 'I'd walk around, then I'd come home and say I had a wonderful time.' Millie says the experiences she had made it difficult for her to trust people in later life. 'There's that horror that someone's not going to believe me.' To this day, Millie has anxieties about money. She lives at home with her parents and their cocker spaniels, Sully and Miss Martha. As a teenager, she saved money from her café job in a box under her bed, frightened to spend it. 'I was just so afraid that I might need it one day,' she says. She would skip meals in the school canteen to save £1.50. This spiralled into an eating disorder, when she was studying history at York St John University, when 'the money anxiety kicked into overdrive'. She dropped to little more than five stone and was hospitalised. She graduated, then spent eight months at a clinic for eating disorders. Castleton says it was a way of asserting control. 'It was a case of this is the one thing that I can control,' she says. 'I found the worst coping mechanism and I just clung to it.' Money anxiety manifested itself in another way for Adi Misra. He describes the family as 'well off' when he was younger, with properties and trips to the cinema. Suddenly, birthday parties stopped — there were no friends to invite, anyway. He started working young and always wanted a job at a bank because it paid the highest salary, so he could help his parents out. He now has his own business as well as a full-time job at Deutsche Bank. 'I don't keep any of my salary,' he says. 'All of my money goes to my parents — every single penny,' he says. 'Whenever I need money, I'll ask them.' Seema Misra has received an interim payment, but still doesn't have her final settlement. Adi lives at home with her and his father, Davinder, in Bisley, Surrey. Seema Misra was not alone in the dock. She was eight weeks pregnant with her youngest son, Jairaj. She served four months in Bronzefield prison before being released and gave birth with an electronic tag on her ankle. Jairaj has lived every moment of his life under the shadow of the Post Office scandal. • Post Office victims offered 'pathetic' payouts: 0.5% of their claims Last week the 14-year-old appeared in a crisp white polo shirt on a Zoom call. Hovering protectively in the background, Seema and her husband sipped cups of tea before the school run. Jairaj says that it gives him some comfort that his mother had been pregnant with him at the hardest point of her life. 'I'm really glad I was with her. If I wasn't, something bad could have happened,' he falters. 'She could have killed herself.' In 2019, when Jairaj was nine, the High Court ruled the Horizon scheme was to blame for the accounting failures that led to Seema's imprisonment. His memories since then have been a lot happier. His mother has become an admired campaigner and her case featured in the hit ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office. When she received an OBE, his teachers came up to him to pass on their support. 'She's a really strong woman,' beams Jairaj, who plays guitar in his school's Big Band. 'I'm really proud of her.' In many ways, the Misras were lucky: their family held together. Other families have been irrevocably broken by the Post Office scandal. Tim Dennis recalls how his parents started arguing after they bought their Post Office in 1998 in Minehead, Somerset, when he was 16 and his sister, 18. His father, Anthony, was a subpostmaster, while his mother, a solicitor, ran the shop. After Horizon was installed and began causing confusion, Dennis, now 43, says his parents would stay awake until the early hours, arguing more and more intensely as they tried to grasp the inexplicable accounting anomalies. He recalls Christmas Day in 2000, when his mother and sister spent the whole day sifting through the accounts. 'The continuing losses affected both of my parents' confidence, and their relationship became more strained,' he says. They spent tens of thousands of pounds, all their savings, making good the losses. 'They'd even borrowed money from my grandparents.' In June 2001, his mother ended the marriage of 24 years. 'I came home one night and Mum had just gone,' says Dennis. Auditors came to the branch in May 2002, by which stage there was no more money left. His father was declared bankrupt. 'My relationship had got so strained with my dad by this point. I blamed him for the breakup,' Dennis says. • Jo Hamilton: After Post Office scandal, I'm a cleaner for those who supported me Alone and cut off from his family, on Christmas Eve in 2005, Anthony tried to take his own life. He was told by the paramedics that if they had arrived two minutes later, he would have died. Dennis had almost no contact with his father for 20 years but in the past five years, as more and more news of the Horizon scandal surfaced, father and son have forged a new relationship. They have breakfast together in Plymouth every Monday. His parents are still estranged, though, and Dennis places the blame squarely at the foot of the Post Office. If it weren't for the Horizon malfunctions, he says, 'I'm certain my parents would still be together. We'd still have Christmases together, birthdays. If it wasn't for the Post Office, we would still be a family.'
BBC News
08-07-2025
- BBC News
Post Office report to lay bare human impact of Horizon scandal
Update: Date: 10:48 BST Title: Highlighters at the ready, here's how today will work Content: Emily AtkinsonLive editor, at the inquiry Good morning from the Oval in south London. I'm here with a BBC team to bring you the findings of the first volume of the final Post Office inquiry report. A short while ago, we and other journalists were led into a room, handed a paper copy of the report, and given three hours to read, digest and package the key lines before they're released publicly. During this time, we're not able to contact anyone outside the room. (Don't fear, I wrote this post a little earlier!) There is one exception, though. We're given a short window to discuss the report with our editors back at base right before it's published at 12:00 BST. While you wait - and we get frantically reading and highlighting - our team in the newsroom will continue taking you through the background to this scandal. See you on the other side. Update: Date: 10:39 BST Title: Wrongly convicted while pregnant and strained family life - some of those affected by the scandal Content: Seema Misra was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2010, while pregnant, after being accused of stealing £74,000 The Post Office scandal had a devastating impact on many sub-postmasters and their families - like Lee Castleton in our last post. Many faced financial ruin. Some were sent to prison over the false accusations, while others died waiting for justice. Here are some of their stories: Anjana (left) and Baljit Sethi (right)'s son, Adeep, previously told the BBC family life became a struggle for his parents - he said his father still finds it hard to talk about what happened Update: Date: 10:19 BST Title: Former sub-postmaster: Report will bring up painful memories, but it's important to move forward Content: We've heard from a few sub-postmasters already this morning, ahead of the report's release. Lee Castleton was declared bankrupt after losing a two-year legal battle when the Post Office falsely accused him of stealing £25,000 from his branch in Bridlington, East Yorkshire in 2004. Speaking to our colleagues on Radio 4's Today programme, Castleton says a recurring issue is that the current compensation schemes are "disruptive". The part of the report being published today will not apportion blame for the failures of the Horizon system, or the way the Post Office reacted, instead it will address the cost of the scandal on the hundreds of wrongly-prosecuted sub-postmasters as well as compensation. People on both sides "are still fighting a war", Castleton says, adding that some of those affected continue to be "victimised" today. He says today's report will revisit "painful times for all the group" - "but it is important to look at the impacts in order to move forward". Update: Date: 10:12 BST Title: This report is sure to be damning - but justice is still a long way off Content: Emma SimpsonBusiness correspondent, at the inquiry This is another big milestone in the long road to justice for the victims caught up in the nightmare of the Post Office scandal. The harm and the suffering they've endured has been immense. The hearings began with sub-postmasters telling their stories. Wyn Williams put them at the heart of the inquiry's work, which has pored over several decades worth of technical evidence and grilled many of those who had a role in ruining so many lives. Now nearly three years on, the sub-postmasters will get recognition of what they've been through from an official public inquiry. Williams will surely be damning in his findings. He could hardly be anything less given all the evidence he has heard. The victims, and the public, want people to be held to account. But it's going to be months before we find out who Williams will point the finger of blame at. Justice is still a long way off. Update: Date: 10:08 BST Title: Six key things to know about the Post Office inquiry Content: Alan Bates, a former sub-postmaster, has long campaigned for redress for victims of the scandal Update: Date: 10:00 BST Title: A landmark day for victims of the Post Office scandal Content: Emily AtkinsonLive editor, at the inquiry Today, the Post Office inquiry, which has spanned more than two years, will share the first part of its final report on the Horizon IT scandal. It's a moment those affected have waited a long time for. In 1999, the Post Office rolled out new accounting software, Horizon, to its network of local branches. Soon after, unexplained shortfalls began appearing in sub-postmasters' accounts. Some used their own money to cover the losses, others had their contracts terminated or were aggressively pursued by the Post Office in the criminal and civil courts. Ultimately, more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongfully convicted of false accounting, theft and fraud, based on faulty Horizon data. Some 236 were sent to prison. The victims and their families say they lost their livelihoods, faced bankruptcy, endured marriage breakdowns, addiction, stress-related health issues and even premature death. Almost six years have passed since 555 sub-postmasters, led by Alan Bates, were vindicated in the High Court. The ruling played a crucial role in exposing the scandal, but many still await compensation - something this part of the report will address. It's due to drop at midday - stay with us for live updates, analysis and reaction throughout the day.
Sky News
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Post Office inquiry latest: Report into human impact and compensation to be published
What can we expect today? Our correspondent Alice Porter is in South London today, where Sir Wyn Williams, the chair of the inquiry, will speak after publishing the report. Porter said Williams organised for this part of the report to be released first because "the issue of compensation is so pertinent to so many victims". "There are hundreds of subpostmasters who have already died having not received compensation, so it's a very real issue," she said. Porter explained many of the subpostmasters and mistresses lost their homes, were bankrupt, and it also impacted their children. "This is obviously something that's had huge impacts on thousands of people across the country, and to give you a sense of just how many people have been impacted, the government so far has paid out over £1bn in compensation to more than 7,000 claimants," she added. "Complaints have been made over the last few years of just how long it's taking to get that compensation into the pockets of the people who really need it, and there's been huge disagreement when it comes to the sums for people." Watch Porter's full update in the video below Wrongfully jailed Post Office workers reveal hopes ahead of report's publication We'll be catching up with Janet Skinner and Seema Misra, two former subpostmistresses who were both wrongfully jailed in the Post Office scandal, throughout the day on Sky News as we get their reaction to the report. Misra told Wilfred Frost her experience in prison was "horrible". "I never thought I was going to come out alive, and if I wouldn't have been pregnant I definitely would have killed myself. "I'm okay to fight with the Post Office day in and day out, but it's the imprisonment bit... we were sent to prison for crimes we never committed, that's difficult to accept." Skinner said people "need to realise" this isn't just about a computer system. "The computer system didn't send us to prison, the people did... they should be put into a court of law and be dealt with in exactly the same process that we were dealt with." When asked whether she is in support of the inquiry, Skinner explained that it needs to be given more power. "If it was a sitting judge and all of this information was put before him, what he said on that day would be made law and you would have to follow that. "With an inquiry, it just comes in findings or recommendations, and we already know the government doesn't like recommendations anyway." Watch the full interview in the video below What is Horizon and how did it trigger a scandal? The Post Office introduced a new IT system called Horizon, made by the Japanese company Fujitsu, across the country in 1999. It was used to manage transactions, accounts and stocktaking. Sub-postmasters and mistresses - the staff in charge of branches - soon began noticing shortfalls in company accounts and complained the system was faulty. No action was taken by the Post Office, so cash shortages of several thousand pounds continued to appear on the accounts of branches nationwide. Some workers were so concerned they used their own money to balance the books. In 2000, the Post Office began taking legal action against sub-postmasters using Horizon data as evidence. By 2014, 736 had been criminally prosecuted, despite the Post Office becoming aware of a fault in 2010. Victims say government's control of redress schemes should be taken away By Adele Robinson, Sky correspondent Post Office scandal victims are calling for redress schemes to be taken away from the government completely, ahead of the public inquiry publishing its first findings. Phase 1, which is due back at noon today, will report on the human impact of what happened as well as compensation schemes. "Take (them) off the government completely," says Jo Hamilton OBE, a high-profile campaigner and former sub-postmistress, who was convicted of stealing from her branch in 2008. "It's like the fox in charge of the hen house," she adds, "because they were the only shareholders of Post Office". "So they're in it up to their necks... So why should they be in charge of giving us financial redress?" Watch: Former subpostmistress says everyday life 'was a struggle' Jo and others are hoping Sir Wyn Williams, chairman of the public statutory inquiry, will make recommendations for an independent body to take control of redress schemes. The inquiry has been examining the Post Office scandal which saw more than 700 people wrongfully convicted between 1999 and 2015. Lawyers warn redress process for Post Office Horizon victims could go on for years Lawyers have warned that the compensation process for subpostmasters wronged by the Post Office Horizon scandal could go on for another three years. Hudgell Solicitors, a law firm involved in securing redress for victims, said it still had more than 700 ongoing compensation cases to resolve. Solicitor Neil Hudgell said the firm agreed damages for more than 300 people, totalling £170m, but said the redress process had "far too much red tape to get through". "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," he said. "It has been retraumatising for many, and increasing numbers are sadly passing away without seeing redress." Watch: Wife of victim 'disgusted' by length of time it's taken Hudgell was asked how long it could take for all claims to be settled. "At the current speed, we are looking at another two to three years," he added. He said one client who was initially offered £50,000 has since seen their offer rise to £500,000. "It is not a one-off glitch, but a stark illustration of a very common issue," he said. "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." Report to reveal 'unimaginable hardship' caused by Horizon scandal The first part of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry's final report will be published at midday, but what will it focus on? Volume 1 of the report covers the compensation and the human impact of the scandal. "Throughout my investigations, I have heard how people have faced unimaginable hardship due to the impacts of the Horizon scandal, from wrongful convictions and financial ruin to broken relationships and severe emotional distress," inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams said. "I have also held several compensation hearings, which have stressed the urgency for people to receive redress that is full, fair and prompt. "I have always been of the view that those who have been affected by the Horizon scandal should be at the heart of the inquiry's work. So, it seems fitting that my conclusions on the suffering endured by so many, as well as the issue of redress, should be at the forefront of my report and published as soon as feasibly possible." Welcome to our coverage Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. The inquiry will publish the first part of its final report at 12pm today, which focuses on the human impact of the scandal and compensation for victims. After the publication, we're expecting the report to be laid before parliament and we'll also hear from chair of the inquiry Sir Wyn Williams, who will make a statement at around 12.30pm. Stay with us as we bring you updates through the day.
BBC News
23-06-2025
- BBC News
Post Office scandal victim upset by £60k bill for legal fees
A former Surrey sub-postmistress who was wrongly jailed while pregnant during the Post Office's Horizon IT scandal says she has been caused "great upset" by a demand of £60,000 for legal Misra, who ran a post office in West Byfleet, was one of more than 900 sub-postmasters convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting based on faulty computer data between 1999 and Nick Gould worked on a pro bono basis to get her conviction overturned in 2021, and Ms Misra then agreed to pay for any further legal work. But she said she has received "no details" as to exactly what work he had done Gould has not responded to BBC Surrey's request for a response. Ms Misra was jailed for 15 months in 2010 after being accused of stealing £74,000 from her Post Office was sent to Bronzefield prison on the day of her eldest son's 10th birthday, and gave birth to her youngest child while still in April she was one of four leading campaigners to receive an OBE for their service to her conviction was quashed, Ms Misra has received an undisclosed amount of interim compensation, but has not yet received the final BBC understands that Ms Misra signed a retainer in 2021, after her conviction was quashed, for the provision of "commercial legal services" provided by Mr Gould moving was agreed Mr Gould would charge for his time at a fixed hourly rate. However, emails seen by the BBC show Mr Gould has since claimed that this agreement was changed to one where Ms Misra would pay the lesser of £60,000 or 5% of any compensation she received from the Post Office. Despite Ms Misra paying Mr Gould more than £20,000, she disputes this later agreement and says she has been given no details of what time Mr Gould in fact spent working on her the time, Mr Gould was working for Aria Grace Law, who said he was removed from professional duties at the firm in January, "following serious concerns regarding his conduct".A spokesperson for Aria Grace said: "Mr Gould does not and must not be taken to speak for Aria Grace." Why were hundreds of Post Office workers wrongly prosecuted?'The Post Office has ruined every happy moment of my life since 2005' They said the firm stood with the victims of the Post Office scandal, and honoured their resilience."We condemn any conduct that seeks to exploit their trust or harm their recovery," they Misra said she would "always be grateful" for the support Mr Gould gave on being asked to pay £60,000 for legal services provided by Mr Gould since her conviction was overturned, she said: "I felt uneasy but I trusted Nick that this must be correct if he, a solicitor, was telling me so."Despite paying in excess of £20,000, in May she received a legal letter on behalf of Mr Gould's current legal firm, Impact Lawyers, saying she would be sued if she did not pay what they said was Wallis, a former BBC journalist who continues to cover the Post Office's Horizon IT scandal, told BBC Radio Surrey that Ms Misra had contacted him "in some distress"."All Seema wanted to know was what work he had done to justify the bill," he added. Ms Misra said she wanted to avoid conflict with Mr Gould "after all his pro bono support for us and because my family and I have already been through quite enough".She added: "I asked for details of exactly what work he had done since my conviction was set aside to justify this, but have received no details."Last month I received a letter from lawyers representing Nick Gould's current legal firm, Impact Lawyers, telling me I would be sued if I did not pay what they said was outstanding."She said she would defend the case if his firm sued her."I don't think Nick has acted as a solicitor should and the whole thing has caused me and my family great upset," she added."I hope Nick Gould and Impact... will now do the right thing and drop the matter so that we don't have to carry on worrying about it and spending further time on it."A spokesperson for Impact Lawyers told the BBC they were unable to comment.
Daily Mail
14-06-2025
- Daily Mail
Former sub-postmistress SEEMA MISRA: Princess Anne gave me an OBE, but if people don't go behind bars for what they've done, we'll give it back...
When Seema Misra was told that the King wanted to award her an OBE for 'services to justice', she was unsure whether to accept it. 'I was shocked,' she says. 'It's a good thing, it's a title I respect, it's the Royal family.' But for Seema, 50, there were strong reasons to turn it down, as justice – in her case and in that of so many others – has still not been served. Almost 15 years since the former sub-postmistress was jailed for 'stealing' £74,000 from the Post Office, and four years since her conviction was overturned, she has yet to receive full damages – or see consequences for the people who ruined her life. YOU covered the sub-postmasters' case in 2022, and ITV 's 2024 drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office re-ignited the public's interest. 'Now people tap my shoulder in the supermarket and say, 'The whole country is behind you', which is powerful to hear, but we're still living with this injustice, day in, day out.' Seema accepted her OBE, attending the ceremony at Windsor Castle in April with her husband Davinder, 54, sons Aditya and Jairaj, 24 and 13, and her elderly mother-in-law. HRH The Princess Royal presented the award. 'She was really good,' says Seema. 'I started explaining that we still wanted accountability, but she knew everything already. She congratulated me for not giving up. It was a good day.' And yet Seema is adamant, 'If people don't go behind bars for what they did, we will be giving the OBE back.' She has every reason to be angry. We meet in the Surrey home she shares with her husband, his mother and their sons. It has five bedrooms and a yard for their two dogs. They have been here a year, a move made possible by two interim compensation payments. Before this, the family shared a one-bedroom flat: the Post Office had taken their business, capital, property and good name. It's hard to convey how much they lost. 'Seema and I came to the UK with zero pence and big goals,' says Davinder. Arriving from New Delhi in 1999, the newly married couple worked hard – in restaurants, at Tesco and at an estate agent. In less than two years, they bought their first buy-to-rent property at auction. They soon built a thriving property business, and in 2005 sold most of it to buy the West Byfleet Post Office and shop. But there were problems with Fujitsu's Horizon IT system from the start. 'At the end of the first day, the system recorded a shortfall of £100,' Seema recalls. A trainer who was teaching her the system instructed her to take £100 from the till in the shop – the couple's own separate business – and put it into the Post Office to balance the books; otherwise, they couldn't open the next day. This pattern continued, with Seema increasingly alarmed. The next week there was a different trainer, who noted the constant shortfall and called the Horizon helpline. The advisor talked the trainer through an IT procedure – at the end of which the shortfall doubled before their eyes. Still, at the end of that week, the trainer just left Seema to it. Years later, when lawyers tried to call these trainers as witnesses in her trial, the Post Office claimed they didn't exist. The shortfalls mounted, in 2008 Seema was suspended and in 2010 she stood trial for theft and false accounting. A warm person who laughs easily, she somehow remained strong and optimistic throughout the legal proceedings. 'I'm good, honest, god-fearing and I'd done nothing wrong, so I really believed it would be OK,' she says. Mid-trial, she found out she was pregnant – the couple had been trying for a second child for eight years and Seema had been treated for polycystic ovary syndrome. 'I was happy, but when I told Davinder he just said, 'OK.' He had no expression at all.' Davinder remembers it. 'Normally, I'd have been jumping up and down, but I could see the way this was going. I knew they were going to take Seema away from me.' The guilty verdict confirmed his worst fears. Seema was sentenced to 15 months in prison on 11 November 2010, Aditya's tenth birthday. This is the point where her voice breaks and her eyes fill with tears. 'I can't come to terms with going to prison,' she says. 'It's the shame. The stigma. We believed that only bad people go to prison.' She and Davinder kept her conviction secret from her parents in India and from Aditya, who was told his mum was in a special hospital because of her pregnancy. 'If I hadn't been pregnant, I'd have killed myself,' she says. 'The cells were filthy, the meat was halal, which I couldn't eat. There was a lot of self-harming, so when you used the phone there'd be blood on it.' When Seema was released after four months for good behaviour, she barely left home. She gave birth to their second son, Jairaj, wearing her electronic monitoring tag. 'All I could think was, 'What must the midwife think? What kind of mother did she think I'd be?'' For years, even while Seema joined other Post Office victims to clear their names, the shame continued. 'I'm proud of my family but I didn't want the world to know my sons were related to me,' she says. 'I never took them to school or picked them up. At my son's cricket matches, I wouldn't go on to the field. I'd park where I could see him without others seeing me.' A group action of 555 sub-postmasters, including Seema, led to the 2019 High Court ruling that the Horizon IT system was 'not remotely robust'. The case was settled for £58 million, leaving claimants with £12 million after legal costs. And in April 2021, Seema's own conviction was officially overturned. A public inquiry established that bugs in the Horizon system had been detected as far back as 1999, but that the Post Office had withheld evidence and edited witness statements to support their prosecutions. The Metropolitan Police has opened a criminal investigation into personnel from the Post Office and Fujitsu. 'I want every single person named in the inquiry, from the government, the Post Office and Fujitsu, to be held accountable,' says Seema. Paula Vennells, the former Post Office CEO, has had her CBE revoked, but for Seema it is not enough. 'This isn't just about people 'making a mistake',' she says. 'How could I be sent to prison, with no evidence, for a crime I didn't commit, when so many people who lied and withheld evidence are still walking around with no criminal consequences? Paula Vennells is just one person. Alan Cook, a former Post Office managing director is another. Angela van den Bogerd, a Post Office executive, is another. There are so many.' To date, £892 million has been paid to more than 6,000 claimants, with many receiving far less than they believe they're owed. Sir Alan Bates recently accused the government of running a 'quasi kangaroo court' payout system for victims, and revealed he has been offered less than half of his claim. 'They are dragging it out to wear us down,' says Seema. 'It's like torture. They hope we'll accept a lower figure because we want closure.' The Misra family is still waiting to see how much they will receive in total. Bates predicts it will be November 2027 before claims are settled at the current rate, and last month urged victims to take the government to court. Seema has her doubts. 'I've been through court and it's not easy. We'd be using public funds to fight the battle, and the Post Office would be using public funds to defend itself. I think it's a misuse of everyone's money.' Still, she understands why victims would take this route. 'I know the frustration and anger, as it is taking so long,' she says. 'It hurts to think of our business growth in our first five years compared to today,' adds Davinder. The couple sold their Post Office shop in 2010 for less than half they had paid for it. They have since moved away from West Byfleet and started again: they began building another portfolio, acquiring a property using the interim payment and helped by Aditya, who graduated from Imperial College London and works at Deutsche Bank. 'Through all this, our sons have been our focus,' says Seema. 'For years, we might be at meetings, court hearings or doing interviews when they were at school, but when they came home we put on a happy face. They never missed their cricket, tuition, guitar lessons… If they'd known what was happening, they'd be different people.' It wasn't until 2019, after the High Court ruling, that the couple told them the truth. 'Aditya was 19 and he was so shocked,' says Seema. 'He never knew I'd been to prison or anything. He read up about it, watched interviews with me and was so proud. And we're so proud of him. He has done so well. We have come through together.'
