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.

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.

Totally agree with this. I heard the woman who'd been pregnant say that it was only the fact she was pregnant that stopped her committing suicide when she was jailed. I don't think any amount of money can compensate them for what they've been through, but I hope they receive a very substantial sum.

One of the many extraordinary aspects of this is that people in the Post Office seriously claimed that they believed that hundreds of people with no criminal record had simultaneously decided to operate quite major frauds, and in a way that was bound to be detected. But I suppose the reality is that they don't dare to admit that they didn't address their minds to that because they were so desperate to protect their systems.

@drpet49

£58 million compensation was awarded but £48 million was legal fees!!!!!! Disgusting parasites. The only ones that ever win are the solicitors and lawyers.

Hardly their fault. Lawyers have to eat and pay their rent/mortgages as much as everyone else.

And solicitors are lawyers.

I've been following this on Radio 4. The interviewer, on one case, sounded so cold and unmoved by the lady's obvious distress - I found it very hard to listen to.

Why did they keep saying that the individual postmaster was the only one this happened to, lie after lie. I hope some of these interviewers hang their heads in shame.

The fact that the Post Office ordered Second Sight who were investigating/reviewing the Horizon system to stop all work and destroy all files the day before the report was due is especially damning. This would have shown that the sytems was extremely flawed but the Post Office tried to bury it.
People have lost their jobs, their homes everything. The compensation paid to them doesn't even cover the money they repaid!

When I heard about this I was amazed that the post office hasn't faced serious negligence lawsuits etc. What they did to those people is unforgivable. I saw a special about it a while back and they had a few of the post masters on, I remember one of them was a newish mom who was sent to prison. Beyond reprehensible.

Just watching some of the personal stories from people who were convicted of offences. It is utterly devastating for them.

I really hope that these people will get decent compensation of some sort.

They will be. Heavily and rightly so too. But no amount of money will buy back the time they all lost.

The Post Office even tried to have the case thrown out on the grounds that the judge was biased against them. WTabsoluteF.

If the system felt money was missing is it possible it was syphoned off by someone high up in the organisation (post office, horizon or otherwise) easy to blame the individual in the shop

@fiftiesmum

If the system felt money was missing is it possible it was syphoned off by someone high up in the organisation (post office, horizon or otherwise) easy to blame the individual in the shop

As I understand it there never was any money missing. I think the computer system was saying there should be more money in the till than the correct amount so it looked like the money was short

I'm sure someone will correct me but there's never been any missing money

The appalling thing is the cover up by the PO, there's no way they didn't eventually realise it was a software fault.

I am sure that a Group action claim will be initiated for what would be highly justified financial compensation

It's absolutely outrageous. A scandal.

This is an absolute scandal and ofc the compensation (which is set at a rate that accounts for fees so the £21k is intentional) is derisory. Most people haven't worked since and have been ostracized by the communities they spent years and indeed sometimes decades serving.

Our postmistress lost her business and her home. She had to move her family - including teenage children - out of town due to the harassment and abuse they were all getting. It has ruined her and her entire family's lives. The other staff also lost their jobs when the post office closed including an older gentleman who had been gradually moving towards retirement. They were a brilliant team who provided an excellent service that was totally in tune with the community it was in. The area didn't have a post office for years after and only now we've got a little counter in a shop where they're blatantly pissed off with anyone who comes in and tries to use the post office service so really we still don't have a service now.

There have been so many negatives that have come out of the situation for everyone that it's difficult to apprehend the extent of the damage done. This is undoubtedly replicated up and down the country. It is reprehensible.

It’s awful what these innocent people have been put through. I just listened to an interview on R4 with a former postmistress (if that’s the correct term) who was sent to prison and said she would have committed suicide had it not been for her children.

Having followed this case, I cannot understand why the senior managers of the PO at the time have not been arrested and charged with perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. I suspect the real reason, as always in this country, is that there is one law for the rich & powerful and a very different law for ordinary people.

My friend was affected by this. They loved running their small town post office and were a valued member of the community. It was all swept away in an instant, and was horrendously stressful.

The stories on this thread are appalling. Those poor people.

Having followed this case, I cannot understand why the senior managers of the PO at the time have not been arrested and charged with perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. I suspect the real reason, as always in this country, is that there is one law for the rich & powerful and a very different law for ordinary people

Exactly this.

I hope, but am not confident, that those who are to blame are all prosecuted. Plus the victims need a massive payout, not 21K which is an insult. These people's lives were ruined; it's totally shocking.

What we don't need is another Independent Inquiry costing zillions and concluding with a mealy mouthed 'lessons will be learned' claptrap.

My dad was caught up in this, not prosecuted, but he had to make up a huge shortfall and wasn’t allowed to operate the post office for a year (this was back in the mid 2000’s). He died last year, but not before the last lawsuit had been settled, he was understandably delighted, as were the staff, many of whom still worked for the business and all of whom knew the system was faulty.

@DancingQueen2018

My dad was caught up in this, not prosecuted, but he had to make up a huge shortfall and wasn’t allowed to operate the post office for a year (this was back in the mid 2000’s). He died last year, but not before the last lawsuit had been settled, he was understandably delighted, as were the staff, many of whom still worked for the business and all of whom knew the system was faulty.

Sorry to hear about your family's experience

If everyone knew the system was faulty do you know why that wasn't part of the court cases?

@ElephantsNest so sorry to hear about your friend. What a devastating thing to experience.

The company that owns the software has just got another £42m contract with the post office btw. I guess it's not quite as much as is considered to be adequate compensation for hundreds of wrongful convictions but it's in the same ballpark.

www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/fujitsu-wins-42-million-horizon-it-contract-extension-with-uk-post-office/

That compensation is simply inadequate. There are so many questions around this still: who agreed that Second Sight independent review was to be chopped the day before they were about to report the IT system failures?, why did Post Office investigators continue to lie saying these were isolated and unique incidents, when it was clearly system failures?, why were post office allowed to pursue prosecutions themselves and clearly not following CPIA and other procedures? these were so clearly lazy and malicious prosecutions, Post Office should be stripped of that power entirely now and instead future issues be investigated by the police, what did the CEO and board members know at the time and why were they not scrutinising this?, and where was and is the Gvt? I feel so sorry for everyone caught up in this. Biggest miscarriage of justice in the UK. It’s shameful.

From what I understand of it the system added up entries wrong. Simple maths. Although i've not seen it laid out exactly how Horizon's errors came about.
I think it is sickening. That poor woman PPs mentioned whose deficit doubled while she was ringing for help. It must have been a stomach through the floor situation.

It was awful how the Post Office bullied them all, many were told that no-one else had had issues. In fact over 730 did over 14 years. On average 52 a year.

@Nith

One of the many extraordinary aspects of this is that people in the Post Office seriously claimed that they believed that hundreds of people with no criminal record had simultaneously decided to operate quite major frauds, and in a way that was bound to be detected. But I suppose the reality is that they don't dare to admit that they didn't address their minds to that because they were so desperate to protect their systems.

The PO and RM have been badly managed and manhandled for so many years, failing profits etc.

They have a culture of distaste for the "workers" and it wouldn't surprise me at all they genuinely felt having got the big wig computer systems up and running that it "found" all the fraud.

A nasty atmosphere of distrust and poor modernisation.

One man (that I know of) killed himself over this. They have blood on their hands and should be protected heavily.