Former Post Office workers say lives fell apart after wrong convictions | Post Office

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Former Post Office workers affected by the IT scandal at the company said their lives “fell apart” and that they were left feeling “worthless” and shunned after being wrongly convicted.

Victims called for the company’s former management to be jailed for their part in the long-running scandal, the inquiry heard on an emotional third day of evidence.

More than 700 post office operators were prosecuted between 2000 and 2014, based on information from the Horizon IT system, installed and maintained by Fujitsu.

William Graham, 53, managed the Riverhead sub-post office, near Sevenoaks, when he was indicted for the concealment of supposed losses of £65,521 in January 2011.

He received a suspended prison sentence, and was one of 39 former workers prosecuted after the Horizon system falsely suggested there were cash shortfalls to have their convictions quashed by the court of appeal in April 2021.

Fighting back tears, Graham told the inquiry his conviction had left him feeling “worthless”.

He said: “I visited the area with my wife and we were basically told ‘we shouldn’t be speaking to you, we shouldn’t talk to you, we shouldn’t be seen to be talking to you’.

“Anyone I had on Facebook, social media, anything like that, immediately went. As soon as I was accused of theft, not even found guilty of anything: it was all my old customers on there … I just felt worthless, I felt worthless to my family, I felt they all saw me as a guilty person and, on paper, I was.”

He paid tribute to his wife, who stood by him throughout the ordeal, and said: “If it wasn’t for her, I probably wouldn’t be here now. I would have got to a stage where I felt like I wouldn’t want to be here. I wanted it all gone.”

Graham said he wanted the Post Office to admit “what went wrong” and when it knew about it.

Harjinder Butoy, 45, ran the Sutton-in-Ashfield branch with his wife in Nottinghamshire until he was arrested, charged and jailed for three years and three months in 2008 for stealing £208,000.

When the guilty verdict came in, he said: “I just fell apart,” adding that he “wasn’t prepared for it”.

He went on to describe his “terrible” experience in prison, where he lost more than six stone and was “stressed every day”.

“I kept thinking how did I end up here, just thinking about my family,” he said. “Everything has just fallen apart for me. I have no confidence in myself any more.”

On what he wants from the Post Office now, he said: “I want somebody to go to prison.”

Gillian Howard, 62, took over running New Mill Post Office in West Yorkshire after her husband suffered a stroke. She said she contemplated suicide when the branch was audited on 27 May 2010.

“I actually drove to a viaduct that one of my customers had recently jumped off,” she said. “He was such a placid, lovely man and I thought if he can do it, so can I.

“I sat in the car, no mobile phone with me … I talked to myself and I thought about my family … I knew I had to return and face whatever they were going to find and I didn’t know what they were going to find .

“I suspected a shortfall but I hadn’t counted it, I’d just balanced.”

She pleaded guilty to fraud in relation to an alleged £45,850.05 shortfall, receiving a six-month community sentence order.

She found out she was being prosecuted on the morning of her daughter’s wedding, which she said was the “worst day of my life”.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email [email protected] or [email protected]. For more information visit www.samaritans.org. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org

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