Post Office sub-postmasters scandal: Long wait for justice goes on – Martyn McLaughlin

For more than a decade, former sub-postmasters have been waiting for justice after seeing their lives ruined by the Post Office Horizon scandal.

Major problems with the IT accounting software were known to the company years ago, but it still took the decision to accuse hundreds of sub-postmasters of theft. The victims of a system designed by the Japanese tech giant Fujitsu were cast as the wrongdoers.

Over the course of around 14 years, some 736 branch managers were falsely accused of stealing money, with thousands more dismissed or asked to make up shortfalls they had no part in. Some ended up in prison. Others took their own lives.

Last year, I heard evidence from several former sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses across Scotland as part of the Scottish hearings of the public inquiry into the long-running scandal, chaired by Sir Wyn Williams. One after another, ordinary, hardworking individuals told of how their lives had been torn asunder by a historic institution they had inherently trusted. Some had to cash in their pensions in order to pay crippling debts. Others told of even greater costs paid.

The Post Office wrongly accused hundreds of branch managers of theft (Picture: Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images)

I vividly remember the testimony of Keith Macaldowie, a former sub-postmaster in the Inverclyde town of Greenock. He lost his marriage, and had to remortgage his home and borrow money from his mother-in-law in order to pay the Post Office more than £15,000. The most harrowing moment of his appearance came when he described how the Horizon scandal still cast a long shadow over his life. He was in debt, reliant on benefits, and had seen his relationship with his children irrevocably changed. “For several years now, they've more or less not had a dad," he explained. “I've more or less become a recluse when I'm not out working.”

The suffering visited upon Mr Macaldowie and others like him is the gravest miscarriage of justice in living memory, and there is some considerable way to go before those who lost everything receive the answers and compensation they deserve. There have been multiple legal processes and schemes set up so far to provide payments to those who had suffered as a result of the Post Office’s incompetence and conspiracy of silence, but to describe them as woefully inadequate would be an understatement.

Four years ago, some 555 sub-postmasters won a landmark civil case against the Post Office, winning nearly £43 million in compensation. But much of those funds were swallowed up thanks to a ‘no win, no fee’ agreement with Therium, the firm which funded the litigation, meaning that on average, the group’s members received around £20,000 apiece. Meanwhile, an overturned historical convictions scheme failed to compensate those sub-postmasters who felt compelled to plead guilty, but subsequently had their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Some victims’ claims were significantly undervalued, or they saw the vast majority of the money they were awarded swallowed up by receivers in order to pay their creditors. The only real winners have been the phalanxes of City lawyers hired to represent the Post Office. It is estimated that their firms have received payments totalling tens of millions of pounds.

There were hopes that all this would change with a new compensation scheme announced late last year by Grant Shapps, the then Business Secretary. Kevin Hollinrake, the Post Office minister, said last week that the initiative, delivered by the government and overseen by an independent advisory board, would ensure that those who did so much to uncover such injustice during the 2019 litigation would receive the “full and fair” compensation they deserve.

However, there are serious questions over whether the latest scheme represents just another false dawn. Consider, if you will, the devil in the detail of a guidance document newly published by the Department for Business & Trade (DBT) to explain its underlying principles. “The scheme aims to put postmasters back into the position they would have been in had it not been for Horizon,” it states. It is a stretch to describe this as the definition of compensation. It is, at best, reimbursement. No matter how it is characterised, what the government is proposing falls appallingly short of what hundreds of postmasters deserve.

A closer examination of the DBT documentation illustrates just how inconsequential its payments will be. It has advised those postmasters impacted by the Horizon shambles that they may be able to claim for non-financial losses they have suffered as a consequence of damage to their reputation, and set out a sliding scale of payments.

Have you suffered distress and humiliation, and damage to your self-esteem and confidence caused by a general loss of your reputation in the community? If so, you may fall into the category of ‘moderate’ loss, and could be entitled to as little as £1,000. Has the distress escalated to a ‘serious’ level whereby you have been the subject of gossip and rumours? The payment could reach the giddy heights of £2,500.

What of those classed as having suffered ‘severe’ loss, defined by the government as including the loss of community positions, being subjected to verbal abuse, or being forced to move out of their local area? A potential minimum payment of £7,500 awaits. And for those sub-postmasters who suffered the loss of their liberty following a malicious prosecution? So long as they were detained for more than a day, the scheme may allow them to claim between £3,000 and £5,000.

In the context of the suffering and humiliation so many have endured, these figures are little more than an insult. Factor in the numbers from the most recent annual accounts of the Post Office, which show that Nick Read, its chief executive, received a £400,000 bonus last year on top of his £415,000 salary, and they demonstrate a staggering contempt. It is not too late for the government, and indeed, the Post Office, to put things right. But for now, the long wait for justice goes on.