ELLESMERE PORT: MP comments on Post Office scandal

The nation has recently been gripped and outraged by what has been described as the UK’s most widespread miscarriage of justice, as told in ITV’s four-part drama, Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, starring Toby Jones.

Over the course of 14 years, more than 700 Post Office sub-postmasters were wrongly accused of – and some convicted of and even imprisoned for – theft, fraud and false accounting in their branches, based on data from the faulty Horizon IT system.

The drama told their stories including that of Martin Griffiths who ran the Hope Farm Post Office in Great Sutton for around 14 years, but who became depressed trying to prove his innocence and in September 2013, aged 59, took his own life.

Last July, Ellesmere Port MP Justin Madders spoke in the House of Commons about the scandal and called for full and swift compensation for the victims.

At the time Mr Madders said: “This is one of the greatest if not the greatest miscarriage of justice in this country.

“We’ve heard many poignant examples today of how the lives of hundreds of Post Office workers have been ruined by the Post Office, aggressively pursuing them on the basis of a fundamentally dodgy IT system, and an IT system that had previously been flagged up as having concerns about it.

“Concern about the culture have been repeatedly raised in the debate today.

“And as members have mentioned, in the High Court in the case of Bates v Post Office stated - ‘It seems to be a culture of secrecy and excessive confidentiality generally within the Post Office, but particularly focused on Horizon’.

“This isn’t someone down the ‘Dog and Duck’ talking about the Post Office, this is a member of the inquiry. This is a member of the judiciary. We have to take those words very seriously.

“Those sentiments are reflected I think by the Communication Workers Union who identified a serious and long standing cultural and governance problem rooted.

“In their view this has led to an abuse of power, the corporate complacency, the denials, the cover ups, false evidence that has been the hallmark of the Horizon scandal.”

Justin Madders MP (Image: N/A)

Mr Madders added: “This has all been going on at the same time as executives have been receiving substantial bonuses and we heard about the chief executive, Nick Reid, receiving not only £455,000 in bonuses but that was on top of his £415,000 salary in 2021-22.

“As we know part of this substantial sum was falsely reported to have been agreed by Sir Wyn Williams who as we know led the Horizon inquiry.

“And partly this payment was due to his cooperation in handing over documents. We know now this turned out to be false on two counts.

“The fact that Sir Wyn Williams had signed this off was a complete fabrication.

“You have to questions what is going on if the chief executive doesn’t know these facts on something so important to the Post Office, and indeed, to the victims.” More than 700 convictions were made between 1999 and 2015 and postmasters and their families continue to struggle with the effects of these miscarriages of justice.

On Wednesday (January 10) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced new legislation to exonerate and compensate wrongly convicted Post Office branch managers.

This was something Mr Madders called for last year.

Speaking at the time, he said: “Despite assertions to the contrary, we know that years have been spent fighting compensation claims against honest sub-postmasters using every trick in the book to draw things out for as long as possible including making low compensation offers only for those to be raised once legal action is taken.

“Using technical and misleading language in letters to dissuade victims from seeking expert advice – these are not the behaviours of an organisation that has a true insight into its failings.

“These are not the behaviours of an organisation that is contrite. These are not the behaviours of an organisation that recognises that it needs to change.

“Ultimately 60 former sub-postmasters have died pay-outs and most victims are still waiting to receive their full and fair compensation. This is outrageous. Victims who have been failed time and again by the toxic management culture.

“What is the Government going to do to protect these victims? What are hey going to do to make sure that justice will be fairly and swiftly delivered?”

Mr Madders’ comments in the Commons can be read in full on the Hansard website.