Post Office inquiry throwing up more questions than answers, says Warwickshire sub-postmaster
A TYSOE subpostmaster who is a victim of the Post Office scandal, says the inquiry is throwing up more questions than answers.
Jacqueline Franklin is following the ongoing statutory hearing, set up to examine failings surrounding the Post Office’s Horizon IT system.
She, and millions of others, watched former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells became tearful while giving evidence.
Ms Franklin told the Herald: “The tears, who are they for? Are they for herself? They’re not for the people who lost their lives or landed in prison. She still says she didn’t know it was going on, but she must have done. The emails she was sending and the emails she was receiving – it’s just one big cover-up.”
She added: “She’s kept all her bonuses and her pension, and she doesn’t need to work again, whereas some of us are in our 60s and still working.”
Jacqueline took over running Tysoe Post Office from her mother Lilian Hopkins, who clocked up 40 years as a sub-postmaster.
Lilian, who died of motor neurone disease in 2019 aged 76, was blamed for errors caused by the faulty Horizon system. Around 900 sub-postmasters were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting during the scandal and hundreds of others were intimidated into making up shortfalls from their own money.
Lilian was among them.
Jacqueline also put in her money to try to balance Fujitsu’s faulty IT accounting system.
“Mum supplemented the money, she put in her own money and I put money in, as well – it was a nightmare,” Jacqueline said.
Jacqueline, who belongs to campaign group The Voice of the Postmaster, added: “We are still very unhappy. This inquiry has highlighted all this to the public but we knew a lot of what was going on in the background. Postmasters have lost their basic pay and are now paid on commission only, so we’re all struggling to make ends meet.
“The Post Office paid all the top-end managers and the CEO all these bonuses for performance they didn’t achieve, while us at the frontline are being cut back.
“With Paula Vennells giving evidence, people are really taking it on board, so it’s bringing up all these questions again. The whole thing is ongoing, until we actually get a conclusion.”
Publicity surrounding the televised Post Office Horizon IT inquiry has brought more attention to the injustice but before that, many of Jacqueline’s customers didn’t know the full story. She said: “They ask: ‘It didn’t happen to you, did it?’ And the answer is: ‘Yes, it did and it’s still ongoing.’ They don’t think it happened to their village post office but it’s happened to every postmaster, with the exception of main post offices where they don’t have to make good the cash. We were all on the same IT system.”
Incredibly, the Post Office has continued using the Horizon IT system, which Jacqueline says is still prone to frequent glitches and errors.
Bidford sub-postmaster Francis Maye, whose life was destroyed after also being falsely accused of stealing from the Post Office, has described his ordeal as going “through hell and back”.
Mr Maye was bankrupted and lost his home because of the flawed Horizon computer system. The 75-year-old widower has previously told the Herald he felt 23 years of his life have “gone down the pan”, due to his shocking treatment.
The scandal, the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history, was catapulted into the public spotlight by ITV’s drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office. The four-part series covers the court case battle won by the so-called ‘555 group’ of 555 sub-postmasters, including Mr Maye, who were part of a group action.
Mr Maye and his late wife Veronica bought the Post Office in Bidford High Street in 2001 and ran it until 2010. In August 2009, auditors began noticing ‘shortfalls’ and at one point, a Post Office manager threatened its fraud team would go to the couple’s home and rip up carpets and floorboards to search for the ‘missing money’.
In all, Mr Maye handed over almost £73,000 to make up alleged shortfalls shown by the faulty Horizon figures.
To make good the so-called ‘losses’, he used his own money, maxing out credit cards, taking out bank loans, re-mortgaging his house and borrowing from his family.
He was repeatedly told he was the only sub-postmaster experiencing these problems, something he later discovered was a lie.
Even though he had done nothing wrong, he was forced to resign.
False rumours spread claiming he’d been arrested for fraud or theft and he was even spat at in the street.
The couple lost their house, were made bankrupt and had to sell their business for less than they’d paid for it nine years earlier.
The Post Office refused to give Mr Maye a reference, so he couldn’t find another job.
Veronica, who had to take a second job, developed angina and died last year.
The inquiry, led by retired high court judge Sir Wyn Williams, is scheduled to continue until 2026.
Paula Vennells said during her evidence that she was “truly sorry" and has quit jobs at the NHS, Cabinet Office, Morrisons, Dunelm and is no longer a minister with the Church of England.
Fujitsu has confirmed it will contribute to compensation payments to sub-postmasters wrongfully convicted in the Horizon IT scandal.
The Japanese-owned company’s European boss has said the technology giant is determined to get to the truth wherever it lies as he answered questions at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry.
Fujitsu chief executive Paul Patterson has apologised to sub-postmasters, describing the scandal as an “appalling miscarriage of justice”.
A statement from the Post Office says: “We are deeply sorry for the suffering caused to so many people by Post Office’s past actions and acknowledge that victims of the scandal need answers, as well as justice and redress.”