The independent body in charge of investigating miscarriages of justice yesterday took the lead in urging postmasters to overturn their wrongful convictions.
Close to 700 victims were incorrectly accused of crimes such as fraud and theft between 2000 and 2015 when glitches in the computer system, called Horizon, were to blame.
But two years after the full extent of the scandal was revealed, 576 are yet to come forward because of their ‘inherent mistrust’ of the Post Office.
Just 104 postmasters have had their convictions overturned or begun the process to quash them.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission said the Post Office had voluntarily relinquished its role on Wednesday and it had taken over, hours before a critical report from MPs was released.
More postmasters may die before getting justice because of delays in paying compensation, MPs warn today. The Mail this week revealed that 33 victims of the Post Office IT scandal had already died without being paid – amid years of obfuscation, delays and court battles. The inquiry into the sub-postmasters scandal is expected to last to the end of 2022
Its chairman, Helen Pitcher, said: ‘There have been a large number of people who haven’t responded to letters the Post Office has sent out because they just don’t trust them as a result of what’s happened. We will immediately contact all the individuals and advise them of what their routes to justice are.’
It comes as the business, energy and industrial strategy committee published a report yesterday which made a series of criticisms of how compensation was being handled.
The Post Office has been unable to trace 126 wrongfully convicted postmasters, while a further 343 have not responded to letters telling them they could be entitled to compensation.
The company and its owner, the Government, has ear-marked £780million to pay to the incorrectly accused postmasters – but this will be lower if they do not come forward to appeal.
In the most severe cases, the postmasters are demanding damages of several million pounds each for their ‘malicious prosecution’.
The Post Office is taking the lead in cleaning up the carnage left by the scandal, leading to claims the payout schemes are flawed as it is not independent.
It is running the main method of compensation, the Historical Shortfall Scheme (HSS), and it has employed the legal firm Herbert Smith Freehills.
File photo dated 23/04/21 of former post office workers celebrating outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London, after their convictions were overturned by the Court of Appeal. Neil Hudgell, who represented 29 of the cleared subpostmasters, has told BBC Breakfast on Saturday they will seek compensation over the Horizon scandal
In response, Post Office bosses said final decisions in the HSS are made by two independent panels and disagreements can be taken to arbitration.
The long-awaited public inquiry into the scandal has been hearing from victims since it opened on Monday. Yesterday, father-of-five Mohammed Amir, 47, from Bolton, revealed he paid the Post Office £130,000 over two decades for ‘missing’ money at his three branches and suffered a heart attack at the age of 33.
He has received a payout of just £20,000 and now suffers from depression. He said: ‘Twenty years of hard work has gone to waste.’
Wendy Martin, a mother-of-three, told the inquiry she had suffered costs of £734,000 in lost earnings due to the scandal.
She suffered a ‘complete breakdown’ and, after receiving just £24,000 in compensation, is working a minimum wage job to clear her debts. Scott Darlington, a 59-year-old who ran a branch in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, between 2005 and 2010, was given a suspended prison sentence after being charged with false accounting over a £44,000 shortfall.
The father-of-one was left unemployed for close to four years due to his conviction.
He told the inquiry that the Post Office’s persecution of its own staff had been a ‘deliberate policy’ as he demanded bosses were held to account. In total, the scandal could cost the taxpayer £1billion in legal fees and compensation. Earlier this week, the Daily Mail revealed 33 postmasters had already died waiting for justice, including four who are believed to have taken their own lives.
Over 50 postmasters are giving evidence in the next four weeks, before attention turns to the civil servants, the Post Office’s former bosses, IT experts and lawyers in June.
The inquiry chairman, retired judge Sir Wyn Williams, will report early next year.
