Ian Warren
‘Victims are getting older – we need compensation’
An elderly former subpostmaster who says his life was ruined by the Post Office scandal has urged the Government to “get cracking” with compensation as victims are “getting older”.
Ian Warren, 75, was wrongly convicted of stealing £18,000 from his village post office in Essex in 2008.
His conviction, which landed him with a nine-month suspended prison sentence, was overturned in 2021, but he has yet to receive a full settlement.
Mr Warren believes the stress caused by the ordeal contributed to his wife’s early onset dementia, which he says has left him “completely heartbroken”.
He also partly blames it for his diagnosis of bowel cancer in 2014, which left him needing chemotherapy.
Writing in his witness statement to the official inquiry, Mr Warren said: “I think that the stress of the Post Office scandal has probably contributed to my outcome.”
Calling on the Government to speed up its compensation to victims, Mr Warren yesterday said: “Be true to your word, and get independent mediators in to assess levels of compensation”.
“Above all, just get cracking,” he told the BBC. “It’s been a long, long time and as you can see, we’re all getting older.”
Mr Warren’s comments echo fears that more Post Office workers will die before being fairly compensated for their losses.
Almost 60 former subpostmasters and mistresses who were wrongly accused of stealing money because of the Post Office’s faulty Horizon accounting scheme have now died before receiving payouts, while four have taken their own lives and three others have died before they could be acquitted.
Mr Warren’s income has also been sorely impacted as a result of the scandal, as he had planned on running the branch until his retirement at the age of 70. He was a chartered accountant before he became a postmaster, but was never able to practice again after his criminal conviction.
“Families were destroyed over this,” he added.
“This groundswell of support has to be turned into fair compensation in weeks to months, not longer.
“A lot of victims are in their 70s; let’s expedite the system for the victims but to make sure those responsible are held accountable soon.”