At least 13 postal workers in Britain died by suicide amid a post office scandal in which about 1,000 postal workers were wrongfully prosecuted for theft and other crimes, according to a report released this week as part of an inquiry into the scandal.
Wyn Williams, the retired high court judge who is leading the inquiry, wrote in the report, published on Tuesday, that by his estimation, more than 10,000 people were eligible for some kind of redress and that he expected that number to grow.
The victims range from postal workers held liable for tens or hundreds of pounds in financial discrepancies to those who were wrongly tried, convicted, imprisoned and made to pay back tens of thousands of pounds. They were all blamed for apparent shortfalls at their postal branches across Britain that, it turned out, had actually been caused by a flawed information technology system.
More than 1,000 people were prosecuted from 2000 to at least 2013, but thousands of others were blamed and held responsible, according to the report.
The 166-page volume, the first from the inquiry, which began in September 2020, focuses on the victims, including exasperating efforts to get compensation from the postal service.
The scandal burst into the public eye last year after an ITV television series, “Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office,” dramatized the stories of the victims. Soon after, the British Parliament passed a law quashing the convictions.
It has been described as one of the worse miscarriages of justice in British history, and the full extent of the consequences for the victims is still being uncovered.
“It is almost impossible to ascertain, with any degree of accuracy, the number of persons who have suffered,” Mr. Williams said in the report.
The report laid bare a number of “disastrous” consequences for the victims, many of whom were vilified by their communities and endured long financial hardships, according to the report.
Martin Griffiths ran a post office in a town outside Liverpool for more than a decade before he ran into problems balancing his books. When he reported the issues, the postal service told him that he was the only one with problems, according to the report. His branch’s shortfalls eventually totaled more than 100,000 pounds (about $136,000 at current exchange rates), and he was fired from his job.
He was making substantial repayments to the post office when threw himself in front of a moving bus in 2013, at age 59, according to the report.
Another post office operator, Seema Misra, was pregnant when she was sent to prison. She said in testimony that the local newspaper had published a photo of her and labeled her the “pregnant thief.” While she was in prison, her husband was beaten up and subjected to racist insults, she testified.
Others declared bankruptcy, sold their homes, drained savings accounts and borrowed thousands from relatives and friends in order to pay back the money that they had been accused of stealing. Their families, marriages and children suffered, as did their mental health, according to the report. In addition to the 13 who took their own lives, 59 people said that they had, at one point, considered suicide.
Justice, in the form of financial compensation or otherwise, has been slow to come.
The report tallied more than 2,500 claims for compensation filed so far — but the post office has said that it does not have the means to provide redress for that many people.
“Some elderly postmasters have expressed concerns that they will have limited time to obtain any benefit from the redress they may eventually receive,” Mr. Williams said in the report. He called for “full and fair” redress for all victims.
Horizon, the information technology program at fault for the accounting errors, was created by Fujitsu, a Japanese company, under a contract with the British government. The report alleges that even before the program was rolled out in 1999, some Fujitsu employees knew that Horizon could produce false data. Fujitsu did not immediately respond to a request for comment submitted through the company’s website.
Postal workers reported issues almost immediately after the rollout, according to the report.
“As the years went by the complaints grew louder and more persistent,” the report said. “Members of Parliament became involved and provided substantial support to postmasters. Still the Post Office trenchantly resisted the contention that on occasions Horizon produced false data.”
Prosecutors relied on data from Horizon to bring criminal cases against the postal workers. Further reports from the inquiry are likely to detail the role of Fujitsu and the postal service’s top officials in the scandal.
“People have waited long enough to hear the truth about events that had such adverse consequences on their lives,” Mr. Williams said in a separate statement. “So, I am determined to provide answers to those directly affected as swiftly as possible.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
Aishvarya Kavi works in the Washington bureau of The Times, helping to cover a variety of political and national news.
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