THEY lost everything – their homes, their savings, their reputations and even their freedom.
But more than 700 falsely convicted sub-postmasters — now recognised as the victims of the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history — have not seen anyone pay for the terrible wrongs that were done to them.
This week a public inquiry began into the convictions for fraud, theft and false accounting between 2000 and 2014.
All were because of data provided by faulty computer system Horizon, designed by Fujitsu and imposed on Post Office branches by senior management.
More than 2,000 other workers were falsely accused of taking money from tills and forced to pay it back from their own pockets, often causing financial ruin.
To date, NO ONE from the Post Office, Fujitsu or the civil servants charged with overseeing post offices has been held accountable.
Now sub-postmasters are demanding that the inquiry changes that.
They hope it will finally be revealed who covered up the truth about the computer faults and who ordered documents relating to the Fujitsu product to be shredded.
Much of the anger so far has been at Paula Vennells, Post Office chief executive from 2012 to 2019, who spent millions hiring legal advisers in a failed bid to prevent sub-postmasters overturning their convictions. She is now an Anglican priest.
The inquiry, led by retired High Court judge Sir Wyn Williams, will also consider whether politicians and civil servants who oversaw the Post Office should be held responsible.
These included current Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, Minister for Postal Affairs in the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government of that time.
Around 2,500 sub-postmasters have now made applications for compensation, with the total cost expected to run to around £1billion.
The Post Office says it cannot afford to pay, so the taxpayer faces picking up the bill.
A Post Office spokesman said: “We are under no illusion as to the damage caused to the lives of the victims of this scandal and we have changed our working practices to ensure this cannot happen again.
“The public inquiry is looking at exactly what went wrong and why, and we will await its findings.
“We are fully cooperating with the inquiry and expect a number of current and former staff to be called to give evidence in due course.”
Below we share the heart-breaking tales of three sub-postmasters wrongly given prison terms and ordered to repay huge sums who hope justice will finally prevail.
CHURCH warden Tom went from being a pillar of the community to pariah after getting a suspended seven-month prison sentence.
The 68-year-old dad of two has campaigned for former Post Office CEO turned priest Paula Vennells to be stripped of both her CBE and position in the clergy.
He also wants former Football Association CEO Adam Crozier, who was in charge of Royal Mail from 2003 until 2010, held to account.
He claims: “Crozier has had a glittering career but is equally to blame as Vennells.”
Tom was accused of taking £23,500 from his till. As one of the first to use the Horizon computer system, he argued it must be to blame – but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
Tom, of Chapel St Leonards, Lincs, whose name has now been cleared, says: “I was suspended on the spot, three weeks later summarily dismissed and a few weeks later called for an interview under caution.”
Even though many other sub-postmasters had suffered a similar fate, he was told his was the only Post Office where such a sum had gone missing.
Like many of the wrongly convicted, he was threatened with a significant prison term unless he pleaded guilty.
For him, it was a case of admitting something he hadn’t done or risking his life, as he needs a machine to prevent risk of heart attack or stroke when sleeping and there was no guarantee of that in prison.
He says: “I was so terrified of going to jail, which to me was almost like a death sentence.”
DAD-of-three Harjinder was falsely accused of stealing £208,000 from the Post Office and received one of the longest jail sentences – three years and three months – of any of the wrongly convicted.
There was no evidence the 45-year-old, pictured with wife Balbinder, was leading a lavish lifestyle with the money he had supposedly stolen, but that did not stop him being locked up alongside violent criminals.
He could not see his sick son, was declared bankrupt and lost his shop, home and two buy-to-let properties which were taken to pay the sum he had been accused of stealing.
Unable to find employment for the past 14 years due to his criminal conviction – finally overturned last year – Harjinder is one of many former sub-postmasters demanding that police investigate Post Office chiefs.
Harjinder, of Chester-field, says: “The police should be making arrests, they should be interviewing Post Office executives.
“We don’t understand why the police haven’t been involved since we got cleared, because the evidence is there.
“I want justice. I want somebody to be charged.
“I am sick of hearing, ‘We’re sorry’, and that we’ll be compensated. I want to hear them say they will start prosecuting the people who hid the evidence.”
Harjinder still cannot find a job and now lives in a rented property, despite having proudly owned his first home at the age of 18.
He adds: “The Government knows there is more to it. The Post Office is government-run.
“I don’t have confidence in the public inquiry. It should be a police inquiry.”
LORRAINE still suffers a form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following her conviction.
The fear of going to prison in 2011 after she was falsely accused of pilfering £14,600 from her small village Post Office led to so much stress her hair started to fall out.
The softly spoken mum of one, 56, whose conviction has since been quashed is tearful as she recounts her ordeal.
Lorraine, of Llanddaniel, Anglesey, north west Wales, says: “I had a ten-year-old daughter. I didn’t want to go to jail. I was an emotional wreck.”
When she went to crown court she pleaded not guilty because she was innocent of any crime.
But the judge told her to go away and “rethink” that decision, and Lorraine reluctantly accepted a plea bargain.
Her one-year suspended sentence, plus 200 hours of community service, would prove only part of her punishment.
Lorraine says: “I was shunned. My daughter was bullied. When I was taking her to school somebody came up to me and said, ‘I don’t like what you’ve done’.”
Prior to her conviction she used to help run the village youth club, fostered children and was a sheltered housing warden.
She says: “I lost ten years of my life. I’m a different person now. I’m angry and anxious.”
