BACK £46M System issues were brought up from start
I loved job but they broke us
DELLA Robinson, 53, was filled with pride when she got the keys to her local Post Office in Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, in 2006.
But her world fell apart four years later when her till was moved on to the Horizon system – and repeatedly came up short.
By 2012, she was down £17,000. She was suspended and police were called.
After being advised she could avoid prison if she admitted false accounting, Della received 280 hours of community service.
She estimates that she lost £500,000 as a result of the scandal as her family sold almost everything to stay afloat and fund legal fees.
Della said: “The money went missing over a two-year period. I called the helpline but they did nothing. One day, the auditors turned up out of the blue. They were already in the office counting the money when I turned up.
Terrified
“Next thing, I was told, ‘We’re going to suspend you’. In court, I could have died. My knees just went.
“There was the option of not going to prison if I pleaded guilty to false accounting. I was terrified of prison.”
Della’s conviction is one of those being assessed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission but she has been unable to work since she lost her Post Office.
She said: “It’s embarrassing going for a job when you have a criminal conviction, even though I know I’m not a thief.
“I’ve also had terrible depression and it’s made my epilepsy worse.
“I was born in Dukinfield. I went to school with most of the people who came into the Post Office. All of the older people knew my grandparents. I loved the job.
“That’s the most devastating thing about it. I was heartbroken. I was so proud. I thought, ‘God, I own the Post Office’.
“I looked forward to getting up in the morning and talking to the customers. I can’t get that back now. It’s sickening what they have done to us. It broke us as a family.” amounts. One – Martin Griffiths, from Chester – took his own life in 2013 after Horizon left a £61,000 hole in his accounts.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission is also reassessing the convictions of 47 people. The Parliamentary Ombudsman can recommend the Government pays the postmasters’ legal fees but cannot enforce it.
Yet Mark Baker, a sub-postmaster and Communication Workers Union rep, said a highlevel investigation would “send shockwaves through the Government”.
He added: “It’s pretty obvious there is a face-saving exercise going on between the Post Office and the Government.
“People are still experiencing issues. It seems the only lesson the Post Office is learning is, ‘How do we cover this up and pretend that it never happened?’”
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said it was “committed to establishing an independent review”.
A spokesman added: “Given the very serious impacts this case has had on postmasters, we need to be sure the right lessons are learned and concrete changes have taken place to ensure this situation will never be repeated.”
The Post Office added: “We have apologised where we got things wrong and set up a scheme to provide redress for other postmasters that may have experienced a shortfall.
“As part of the litigation, the court found the current version of Horizon to be robust compared to similar systems. Since then, we’ve made lots of design changes to transactions on Horizon based on feedback.”
THE Post Office rolled out Fujitsu’s £1billion Horizon IT system in 1999.
It was meant to make sub-postmasters’ lives easier – but many noticed issues early on.
Alan Bates, from Llandudno, North Wales, voiced concerns as early as 2000 but they appeared to fall on deaf ears.
Horizon then went on to wreck the lives of hundreds of sub-postmasters.
A year later Tracey Felstead, then 19, was jailed for theft and false accounting after she was accused of taking £11,500 from a branch in Camberwell, South London.
She spent three months in HMP Holloway and was released on a tag but has maintained that she is innocent.
Now 39, Tracey, who moved to Telford, Shrops, struggles with mental health problems and has tried to take her own life twice.
She said: “The trauma of going to prison at 19 has affected my whole life.
“I can’t trust anyone and my marriage broke down because of the stress of trying to clear my name.”
Paula Vennells joined the Post Office in 2007 and became its CEO five years later.
However, she quit last year, months before the High Court case.
Vennells repeatedly failed to address the issues caused by Horizon and her tenure as CEO was described as “cruel and incompetent” by Tory peer Lord Arbuthnot.
She sparked outrage last month when giving written evidence to MPS and appeared to blame everyone but herself for the scandal.
Vennells, now a part-time Anglican priest, told the Business Select Committee that she did not approve of prosecutions but criticised sub-postmasters for taking their claims to court.
The 61-year-old said: “I remember being told by Fujitsu’s CEO that the system was ‘like Fort Knox’.” Labour MP Karl Turner branded Vennells “a disgrace” and said: “She has chosen to throw everybody under the bus to save her own skin. She is responsible for ruining sub-postmasters’ lives and ought to face up to some
responsibility.”