To hope that the Postmasters who were wrongly convicted/accused of fraud are compensated?

[Pottedpalm]

I know there is no adequate recompense for the horrendous stress, loss of livelihood and , in some cases, imprisonment they have suffered, but they deserve compensation and a public apology.

Is there a story around this? Not sure I know what you're on about

Yanbu

I agree. The list of names should be published alongside the public apology so everyone in their hometown/work area can see they were innocent all along.

Completely agree with you. These innocent people were vilified in their local communities. Appalling.

The Post Office installed a new computer accounting system which was faulty. Hundreds of postmasters were accused of theft and fraud . Many lost their jobs, were prosecuted and I believe, imprisoned. The Post Office refused to accept responsibility.

It was disgusting and done very deliberately in the knowledge the IT didn't work properly.

They were willing to destroy these people's lives and send them to prison just to save their own corporate face.

I would go further and say that the senior managers knowingly involved should have been charged with perverting the course of justice and done some of the prison time they made others do.

I think someone should be prosecuted for perjury or something
The way those post masters were treated was criminal

Yanbu.
I've been listening to it on radio 4 over the week. It's heartbreaking what happened to them.

It's the Horizon scandal I assume. www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56718036
There's a good multipart podcast on this too.

Some of the convictions were overturned in December but others still to be reviewed

Their lives were destroyed by this and the compensation so far is about £21k per person.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_(IT_system)

This is the podcast www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m000jf7j

I don't think anyone could argue that would be unreasonable.

YANBU. I can’t stop thinking about the terrible damage done to so many families in the name of protecting the (now destroyed) reputation of the Post Office.

We were running a village post office at the time. There but for the grace of god...

It was so easy to make mistakes on that system, especially with the very complex end of day accounting, but it was nigh on impossible to rectify them. The helpline was brilliant but needed troubleshooting experts who could untangle this stuff.

My DH made an error and demanded an investigator come out. He had the paper trail and was able to show exactly what he'd done and it was cleared.

The worst part is that in almost all these cases - and ours - there never was any shortfall.

Our branch (and some other nearby branches) was also defrauded by £3000. We had to pay that

I agree OP. I saw the interview with the woman who had been sent to prison due to this and had used her own savings to try and plug the gap caused by the problems. She was pregnant when she was convicted and her baby was born in prison.

Thanks to those who mentioned the podcast, I will be downloading.

The Post Office has already spent out £58m in compensation. However I think if they are quashed, as they should be, they will then have no choice but to compensate

Although it won’t help those who have died waiting

It’s been horrific for them, the Post Office should be ashamed

Oh my god that's horrific. That article says some tried to plug the shortfall themselves

Senior management should be prosecuted and jailed. Some postmasters lost everything- their job, livelihood, reputation. Sent to jail. I believe some even committee suicide.

Many of these people have been broken by the stress and shame. I agree there should be publicity in their local areas, to restore their good names.

£21k barely touches the sides as compensation.

@FizzyApricot

I don't think anyone could argue that would be unreasonable.

You'd have to be very odd to think that innocent people shouldn't be cleared but I there's some kind of session with framing everything as an AIBU it seems

I agree that those in charge at the time need to be held accountable. Ive followed this for years and it must have been obvious to them after the first few cases that the system was at fault. Imo those at the top be saved criminally.

Very sad for those whose lives have been ruined by this. I hope they get justice and can move on, bit sadly it will be too late for some.

Maybe they need to rename AIBU as 'serious conversation' and Chat as 'flippant nonsense' then we'd be spared all these convaluted 'AIBU to think this thing that anyone of sane mind would agree is reasonable' or indeed 'AIBU to ask whether I should get a takeaway tonight' questions.

Sorry! I know it’s not the best forum but as people say, it’s the one with most traffic 🙂

Sorry didn't mean that to be rude, I just couldn't see anyone arguing that it would be unreasonable to be compensated. Maybe someone does? I'd like to hear their rationale if so.