- Friday, May 03, 2024
Sub-postmasters were wrongly probed for ‘fraud’ based on faulty information from the Horizon computer system
By: Chandrashekar Bhat
THE Post Office said it is open to revisiting the compensation claims of Horizon accounting scandal victims, “if there is any error” in the scheme.
The promise follows the claims that the payouts offered by the company are inadequate considering the trauma the victims have gone through.
Hundreds of sub-postmasters had been wrongly investigated for ‘fraud’ based on information from the Horizon computer system that was later discovered to be faulty.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 branch managers were prosecuted and some of them were jailed in what is now known as “the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history”. At least four victims of the scandal have committed suicide.
Many convictions have been overturned and the Post Office and the government apologised in 2019 for their fault.
The Post Office came out with the Historical Shortfall Scheme to provide for personal injury, distress, harassment, loss of reputation and bankruptcy costs suffered by the victims.
As of June 6 this year, 2,401 settlement offers of a total value of £98.8 million were sent to the victims and £70.3m was paid to 1,980 people. They included the interim payments of £10.2m.
Some victims feel the offers were inadequate but Post Office chief executive Nick Read thinks otherwise. But he said the company was ready to fix any error in the scheme.
“If they (the compensation schemes) are unfair, then of course (we’ll reopen them), but I do not currently believe that to be the case,” Read told BBC Radio 4.
Postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake too expressed a similar view, saying “If there is an error in principles behind the scheme then of course we’ll go back and fix them.”
Read told the Commons business committee last week he understood “the fairness that is being applied” and “I believe it is happening in the right way.”
