LONDON: Public anger is mounting over what has been described as Britain’s biggest-ever miscarriage of justice that saw hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly convicted of theft because of a computer software glitch.

Lives were ruined by the false accusations that led to some Post Office branch managers being jailed, going bankrupt, losing their homes and their health. Four people took their own lives and dozens of those since exonerated died without seeing their names cleared.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the scandal as an “appalling miscarriage of justice” that should “never have happened”.

Wave of sympathy

Now, a TV drama telling the story of the sub-postmasters’ ordeal at the hands of their own employer has generated a wave of sympathy for the victims. Critics hailed the four-part “Mr Bates vs The Post Office”, broadcast last week, for humanising the ordeal of hundreds of people prosecuted for false accounting and theft between 1999 and 2015.

However, the sub-postmasters — pillars of their local communities — had not stolen a penny. In fact, they were the victims of flawed accounting software and the state-owned Post Office’s determination to defend it.

Following the broadcast, a petition calling for former PO boss Paula Vennells to be stripped of an honour she received from Queen Elizabeth II has garnered more than a million signatures.

‘Lies and deceit’

The drama stars award-winning actor Toby Jones as Alan Bates, who leads a long David and Goliath battle to prove the postmasters’ innocence. It documents the fear and desperation of the branch managers as they struggled with the new “Horizon” software supplied by Japanese tech giant Fujitsu.

In one scene, sub-postmaster Jo Hamilton is depicted calling a helpline only to see the supposed shortfall in her accounts double on the screen as she speaks.

Hamilton was accused of stealing 36,000 ($45,000) but pleaded guilty to false accounting for fear of being sent to jail.

More than 700 sub-postmasters ended up with criminal convictions as a result of the scandal, with 236 serving jail time.

Jess Kaur, whose story was featured in the TV programme, broke down as she recounted the shame of being dragged before a judge for a crime she had not committed. “It drove me so mad that I tried to commit suicide,” she told Good Morning Britain, adding that after she was accused customers would spit on the floor of her shop in disgust.

Kevan Jones, an MP who sits on a board set up to award compensation to victims, said the programme had successfully communicated the depths of the sub-postmasters’ suffering. “The drama was very good not only at exposing the lies and deceit that took place, it showed the complete heartache and broken lives,” he said.

He warned, however, that it would be difficult to get more convictions overturned because “most of these people will not come forward... They will not go anywhere near a court of law because of the trauma”.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2024