Latest news with #wrongfulAccusation
BBC News
3 days ago
- BBC News
Wrongly accused Birmingham postmaster returns for her dad
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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." Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
09-07-2025
- BBC News
'We suffered bullying, anorexia and being branded as thieves'
Millie Castleton was only eight years old when her father lost his job managing the post office in Bridlington, Yorkshire, and her family was branded as "thieves and liars" in the local a decade later, after facing bullying at school, developing an eating disorder and dropping out of university, she is still struggling with the story was singled out by a report published this week, looking into the scandal around subpostmasters who were wrongly accused of fiddling the hundreds of other children suffered similar experiences, shunned by friends, suffering financial hardship, and watching their parents fall apart under the strain of being accused. "Part of me will always feel a little broken-up," Millie told the official inquiry into the Post Office scandal, which produced this week's report."That nagging voice in my head still says ugly things sometimes. It still tells me that my past and my family's struggle will define me, that it will be a branding on my skin forever. Broken, thief or liar."Like many subpostmasters, Millie's father, Lee Castleton, challenged the Post Office's allegations that he had taken funds from the branch he it took years to win official recognition that people had been wrongly accused and that faulty software on the Post Office system could make it look as though money was missing when it wasn' the meantime, Millie told the inquiry "confusion, frustration and anxiety... was leeching into my home".She developed epilepsy and at 17 her mental health began to suffer. She experienced "self-loathing, depression and feeling like a burden to [her] family".Millie managed to take up a place at university but dropped out at the start of her second year after developing now, at 26, she finds it hard to trust anyone, she says."I sabotage myself by not asking for help with anything. Asking for equipment, advice or resources feels terrifying. Like I'm unworthy." The report provides glimpses into the impact on other Powell's daughter, aged 10, went to live with a friend when Janine, postmistress at a branch near Tiverton in Devon, was convicted and spent five months in prison. The separation from her mother, change of school and deep-seated unhappiness in her new home formed a traumatic experience for the child, the inquiry's report states, leading to mental Thomson, a subpostmaster in a rural community near Alloa in Scotland, said his children, aged 10 and 13 at the time, were teased and bullied at school, while his wife became reclusive and depressed because she was "so embarrassed and ashamed".Mahesh Kumar Kalia said his family was "dysfunctional" and his parents separated after their relationship became "toxic and turbulent" following his father's conviction. Mahesh and his father were estranged for 17 years until he understood his father had been wrongly convicted."Between the ages of 17 and 35, I did not have a relationship with my dad. We will never get back this time," he told the government has confirmed that it is setting up a scheme, along the lines recommended in the report, to compensate "close family members" if they "suffered serious adverse consequences" from the scandal. So far there are no details of how the scheme will work or how soon they will see any results."We don't want to wait like our parents for three or four year for claims to be settled," said Rebekah established the charity Lost Chances a year and a half ago for the children of wronged subpostmasters and said there was a sense of relief that their situation was now being of the 250 people who have joined Lost Chances had their education disrupted, had to take care of parents or siblings, some watching parents become alcoholics, or have other breakdowns, she could help some of them return to education or pay for therapy they might otherwise not be able to afford, she said."Loss of childhood - we're not sure how that gets put into a claim," she added. That is what happened in her case, she spent her teenage years looking after her five siblings and working in a chip shop at the weekends while her mother became a said Lost Chances would be involved in the process of drawing up the new compensation scheme, meeting with ministers in the Department for Business in the coming weeks. The report acknowledges that it may prove difficult to agree which family members should be entitled to compensation, what evidence should be required for a claim to be made, and what the scale of the compensation should Professor Richard Moorhead, an expert in law and ethics at the University of Exeter, said the stories about children highlighted by the report had been "heartbreaking" and welcomed the recommendation for compensation."Compensation will not right the wrongs or reclaim the time. Their lives have been blighted, but I hope and expect it to make a substantial difference to improving the chances of those children," he said.
BBC News
09-07-2025
- BBC News
Handsworth Post Office victim to return to family business
A postmistress who lost her Post Office branch after being wrongly accused of stealing money plans to return to her family business next Gill ran the Wattville Road Post Office in Handsworth in Birmingham and was one of hundreds to be accused or convicted of theft and fraud because of a faulty computer system, branch was started by her father in 1976 and then handed down to her and she said: "My father always wanted us to get it back somehow."Yesterday a report was released, looking at the impact on victims, as well as the fairness and speed of the compensation process. The report said the scandal had a "disastrous" impact on those said at least 59 people contemplated suicide at various points, of whom 10 attempted to take their own lives, and more than 13 people may have killed themselves due to the Post Office has apologised unreservedly for what it called a "shameful period" in its Gill said she had considered suicide herself and it was "saddening" to hear how so many others had been said when the allegations first emerged of money going missing from her Post Office, there was an assumption in the local community that she was guilty."Everybody started talking about it, everybody said you did it," she said."People just automatically believed what was said."To try to balance the books and stay out of jail, she said she ended up missing card and mortgage payments and her parents had to sell a property to keep her inquiry, led by Sir Wyn Williams, criticised the speed of compensation, saying that for many claimants it had not been delivered "promptly".Ms Gill, one of those still waiting for her compensation, said: "I just want it finished."Now, she said the local community was "behind me 100%" and wanted her to get her Post Office back."I've watched these people in there for the last 15 years," she said."My father always wanted us to get it back somehow and next year will be 50 years of us having the business, and that's one thing I wanted to do for him and his memory." Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
