Post Office scandal: Justice delayed is justice denied

Monday 03rd May 2021 09:42 EDT
 

Samuel Caveen, former postmaster Martin Griffiths’ nephew has said that “it is time for a proper inquiry into the scandal and the cover-up.” Martin Griffiths was a father of two, who was driven to financial and emotional ruin by erroneous shortfalls in the Post Office’s Horizon IT system. He took his own life, aged 59.

Speaking to The Times, Caveen said, “With no explanation forthcoming, he sought answers from the Post Office. He was told in no uncertain terms: this is your problem and your problem alone. At no point did it mention that other sub-postmasters were seeing similar problems. We now know more than 2,000 were.”

He further told the publication that the Post Office had demanded to return the money. Martin and his family paid more than £100,000 to the Post Office. Describing him as a “spirited and gregarious” Caveen said that he was “reduced to despondent solitude”.

The Court of Appeal has quashed the convictions of 39 sub- postmasters, but that doesn’t change the fact that about 700-plus were successfully prosecuted for theft, fraud and false accounting. Sub-postmasters and their families deserve justice, which is already too late, but hopefully not denied. The list of subpostmasters includes many South Asian names like Seema Misra and Vijay Parekh who suffered the “biggest miscarriage of justice”. 

 

Financial Times reported, “The main response to this scandal must be to see justice done and fully compensate those sub-postmasters who have had their lives wrecked. But we should also learn some lessons from it. The government has launched an inquiry into what went wrong. But the testimony, the experiences of sub-postmasters recorded by investigative reporter Nick Wallis, and interviews with technologists and lawyers familiar with the case provide strong clues.” 

 

Boris Johnson, who spoke to three sub-post masters on Friday, said: “We will stand with them to find the answers to what went wrong.”

 

Sir Ed Davey, the Lib eral Democrat leader supports a full public inquiry. Davey also said that, “Going back over 20 years, no government handled this well and I am sure every minister during that time will wonder if they could have done more.”


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