‘Even though I was innocent, I was to pay the £11,000’
Nancy Chant has worked for the Post Office for 50 years but her long and loyal service counted for nothing when her accounts showed two deficits totalling £11,000.
The grandmother, 67, who runs the post office in Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire, was asked to pay it back despite her protesting her innocence.
“The money was a horrible amount for me and I had to come to an agreement with the Post Office to pay it off over two to three years. My late husband was furious at the way I had been told to pay thousands for something that was clearly not my fault, but I had no choice,” she said.
“I had signed a contract to make good any shortfalls in the branch accounts. It was only later I discovered that I was one of hundreds who had to pay for the faulty Horizon IT system’s faults.”
Like other falsely accused sub postmasters, she poured over the accounts looking for a discrepancy to explain the missing money, but it never emerged. “My area manager asked if there was an error or had I stolen the money and I protested that I had never taken any from the Post Office, ever in all my years of service. Eventually, I had to accept that even though I was innocent, I was to pay the £11,000.”
Chant, who is seeking compensation and the return of the money she was forced to repay, remains shocked by the Post Office’s failure to acknowledge the problem was with its computer system and not its sub postmasters.
“Did none of the bosses stop and wonder if they were at fault, and not the honest people running hundreds of local post offices? I thought I was a one-off with a huge deficit in accounts, then I began to hear of others and realised the IT system was to blame.”
Even today 15 years later she says she still gets nervous cashing up. “I regularly cash up every night, checking and double-checking every item.”