Post Office Horizon IT scandal: Sufferer ‘could not inform dad she can be okay earlier than he died’ as she fights for compensation

A former sub-postmistress wrongly prosecuted over the Post Office IT scandal says she was unable to inform her father she can be okay earlier than he lately died as a result of she remains to be ready for compensation a number of years on.

Sue Palmer was amongst greater than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses who confronted authorized motion based mostly on info from a defective Horizon accounting system, which noticed employees wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting.

The chairman of the inquiry into the scandal, Sir Wyn Williams, has called for legislative changes to resolve issues with what he described as “a patchwork quilt of compensation schemes… with some holes in it”.

Just in need of £100m has been paid out up to now by the Post Office and the federal government to folks affected by the scandal.

Ms Palmer, who turned a sub-postmistress in 2004, says she has but to obtain any compensation.

Speaking to Sky News, she stated the scandal noticed her lose her house of twenty-two years and she or he was pressured to “go bankrupt”.

She stated she obtained error notices from the Post Office about alleged discrepancies and was then taken to court docket for false accounting and theft earlier than being cleared.

She instructed Sky News: “I had a three-day trial, it took them about 10-15 minutes to find me not guilty. Then the newspaper printed that I was (guilty).”

“I really struggled then.”

She stated she was unable to get the Post Office to get again to her regardless of being cleared of wrongdoing. “It was like they were making an example of me, because I stood up to them.”

‘I do not need fortunes’

During her ordeal with the Post Office, she stated: “They sent the bailiffs around one day [the High Court sheriffs] and put the furniture in the front garden so everybody could see. It’s like the final humiliation.

“Our lives have by no means been the identical. My husband just isn’t the identical, I do not communicate to my eldest son due to it, so I’ve received a fractured household.

“We keep being told we will get full, fair, final compensation. Well, I am 19 years down the line.”

She stated she simply desires “to be able to live. I don’t want fortunes”.

“They took away everything we have ever worked for. I had to sell everything I had. The only thing I kept was my wedding ring. My dad passed away a few weeks ago. I couldn’t even tell him I would be okay. That’s all I wanted. To be able to say to him, ‘don’t worry dad, I will be alright’.”

Read extra:
Government compensation scheme for postmasters unveiled
Failures in IT system were raised to Blair’s government, inquiry hears
Victims of Post Office Horizon scandal awarded millions more in compensation

Shazia Saddiq, one other former sub-postmistress who used to run three publish workplaces in Newcastle upon Tyne, says she has obtained a “minimal amount” in compensation and “with the losses I made, it didn’t even touch the sides”.

Ms Saddiq stated she was accused of taking £40,000. She stated she needed to pay £10,000 out of her personal pocket.

“They won’t get anything else from me”, she stated, including the state of affairs had been “torturous”.

“We can’t move on, there is no closure, they are keeping us in fight mode.”

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‘We misplaced every thing’

She instructed Sky News: “This [scandal] has had a devastating effect on myself and my immediate family.

“We misplaced every thing, we misplaced our house, we misplaced our enterprise, the group I served.”

She said she has been assaulted by the public with flour thrown at her in the street and called a thief.

Ms Saddiq said: “I’ve been coping with the problem of enormous discrepancy for over a decade. To hold any individual on this type of struggle mode for such a very long time is torturous.

“We need full and fair compensation.”

A Post Office spokesperson stated: “We welcome Sir Wyn’s interim report and share his view that victims of the Horizon scandal must be provided with full compensation, fairly and consistently. This remains our priority.”

They stated throughout compensation preparations, gives totalling greater than £120m have been made to round 2,500 postmasters, with nearly all of these agreed and paid.

“We can confirm that we continue to accept eligible late applications and publish data each month showing the progress we’re making in resolving these applications and the level of compensation paid,” the spokesperson added.