Subpostmaster, 69, who was left with a bill of £17,000 due to flaws within the Post Office system, revealed in an inquiry that he 'contemplated suicide' due to the IT system fault. In a massive miscarriage of justice, more than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses (SPMs) faced false claims of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a flaw in the computer system Horizon, installed and maintained by Fujitsu.
In an inquiry in central London heard on Monday, Baljit Sethi, 69, and his wife Anjana, 67, who have three children together, revealed that they 'lost everything' after the Horizon IT scandal.
Mr Sethi, the first witness to give evidence, told the inquiry: 'We didn't take a single penny from the Post Office our entire life.' The inquiry heard that in 2001, Mr Sethi took on another branch in Brentwood, Essex, which after one year showed a hole in the accounts of £17,000, which the couple were asked to cover out of their own pocket.
Sethi, who was never charged, told the inquiry he tried to communicate with the head office in Chelmsford, Essex, after noticing a problem with the system.
He broke down in tears as he went on to say: 'I used to open it at 8am and shut at 8pm. I was the only Post Office in the country running all seven days.'
Sethi also added: 'We lost everything we ever had after 20-25 years and this was all thanks to the Post Office.
'I was down and out, I contemplated suicide, but I thought no, that's the easy way out, what about my family and my children?'
The Mail reported that Sethi described working late shifts as a security guard on minimum wage to help fund quality education and lifestyle for his children. He went on to say: 'People in our community believed we had been robbing from the Post Office.
'It all had a bad impact on us psychologically, financially and reputation-wise.'
Around 900 of the 2,300 applicants have been made an offer, the Post Office confirmed.
The Government has been forced to fund the compensation bill as the Post Office's sole shareholder – with the total expected to run past £1billion. A judge is due to hear evidence on why sub-postmasters and postmistresses were singled out and whether they have been justly compensated.
Sandip Patel QC, Managing Partner at Aliant Law who has represented clients during this scandal, told Asian Voice, “We know that the impact on all the sub-postmasters was in relation to the emotional impact was extreme. Not only did many of them become bankrupt, but they lost their livelihoods. Many lost their homes as a result of becoming bankrupt. I know that many lost their relationships. Those who went to prisons suffered the most. You have to remember that many of these were vulnerable people, they were elderly. Having represented a number of the sub-postmasters, what I found is that this continues to haunt them, even to this day, even after they've been vindicated by the Court of Appeal because no amount of money can really redress the fact that absolutely nothing can compensate for those times.”
