There is every chance Fiona would be with us today if it was not for the Post Office and their false accusations
Scots postmasters demand public inquiry – Former sub-postmaster Phil Cowan
Postmasters falsely accused of stealing thousands of pounds because of Post Office computer errors have demanded a public inquiry into the devastating fiasco.
More than 500 postmasters and postmistresses were accused of false accounting and theft, with some prosecuted and jailed, after the faulty Horizon IT system showed their branches to be running unexplained deficits.
Now they are demanding Post Office bosses compensate them for the baseless accusations that destroyed businesses and lives, and explain the failures at a public inquiry.
The scale of the computer fiasco and the devastation inflicted has only fully emerged since December, when Post Office bosses agreed to pay 550 claimants £58 million compensation.
In a judgment, High Court Judge Mr Justice Frazer said the Post Office’s position in the case “amounts to the 21stCentury equivalent of maintaining that the earth is flat.”
E a c h time subpostmasters, at the 11,600 post offices where Ho r i z o n w a s being used, raised concerns over discrepancies in accounts blaming software bugs and inadequate training, Post Office managers instead accused them and denied there was a problem with the computer system.
Fo rme r Edinburgh subp o s t m a s t e r Kashif Nadeem, 32, who paid the Post Office £ 28,000 after being threatened with prosecution, was among those wrongly accused. Mr Nadeem, who ran his post office with his father Mohammed, said: “My dad had worked for years after arriving from Pakistan and had become a pillar of the community. Now some people were calling us thieves. It was excruciating.
“We want a voice. We need people to know what happened to us.”
Another former sub- postmaster Phil Cowan and his partner Fiona Mcgowan were also falsely accused of stealing thousands of pounds. The couple were visited by their area manager after weeks of discrepancies at their branch in Parsons Green, Edinburgh, culminating in a £30,000 shortfall.
He said: “I immediately called the area manager and he was there within the hour, with two forensic accountants. He took me aside and just asked, ‘How soon can you pay us back?’
“The three of them ransacked the place, emptying the office of all that had Post Office ownership – money, stamps, postal orders, alongside the terminals, scales and keys to the safes. We never opened again. They told us we were the only ones this was happening to.”
Fiona spiralled into depression after being wrongly accused and Phil said: