A man accused of stealing more than £60,000 from his employer at The Post Office killed himself.
Martin Griffiths, from Ellesmere Port, ran the post office with his wife Gina for 14 years in Great Sutton. Gina was in charge of the retail side, while Martin took hold of the post.
They ran the Hope Farm Road Post Office together until in 2009 when Martin was accused of stealing over £60,000. They alleged he took the money from the branch over four years but really the computer tills system Horizon had wrongly showed the money to be missing.
READ MORE: Birthday party murder: 'I can still hear the screams from my kids'
The dad, 58, is just one of the victims of the Horizon scandal, which saw more than 700 branch managers given criminal convictions between 2000 and 2014, Cheshire Live reports. It later emerged Horizon had been faulty in displaying money was missing from branches.
Many of the convictions have been overturned and many more people may receive compensation. However the shame of being accused caused Martin to kill himself in September 2013, his wife says.
Gina Griffiths told BBC Panorama documentary she places the blame for her husband’s death solely on the Post Office. She said: "Martin and I married in '82. We had two children. He liked all sorts of sports. He was a very good sportsman, he loved cricket.
"We decided to look into buying the post office and Hope Farm Road came on the market. And we decided to go for it. It was a very busy post office, and we successfully ran it for many, many years, 13, 14 years, and then all of a sudden, money started going missing.
"We had to pay the money back in order to carry on trading, otherwise, they would have closed us down. They hounded him. They persecuted him. Didn't seem to be any end to it at the time."
Martin was on his way to work when he stepped into oncoming traffic. He was rushed to hospital and placed on a life-support machine but he died the following day.
Gina said: "Then they told him they wanted to terminate his positions [as a] sub postmaster and they gave him three months. Martin hit rock bottom.
"He said goodbye on the Monday morning. I was going to work an hour later. It came on the radio, about an accident that happened on the road that we travelled on the A41. I just knew it was Martin. I think he'd been planning it, I really do.
"He’s a proud man and I think he thought he was letting us all down; his children, his parents, me. To turn the machine off in the morning, and the worst, the worst thing for me was seeing my children.
"They had to see their dad die and it was purely down to the post office. Nobody else. So I blame them."
The BBC Panorama documentary explained that an investigation by independent forensic accountants, called Second Sight, worked to look into the accusations that Horizon was not working properly. They went before the government in February 2015 and confirmed that there were flaws in the IT systems.
It has also been revealed that the Post Office and its CEO Paula Vennells knew about the instability of their theft convictions 18 months prior. Paula left the role in 2019. No one has yet been held accountable for the miscarriage of justice.
The names of 29 postal workers were cleared in 2021 in the Court of Appeals, but not before many were left homeless, suicidal, devastated and ruined by the impact of the accusations between 2000 and 2014.
The Post Office told BBC Panorama: "We are sincerely sorry for the impact that the Horizon scandal has had upon the victims and their families. Past failings can never be repeated and we are making fundamental reforms to our operations and culture. Whilst we cannot change the past, we have taken determined action to ensure that justice is provided for the people affected."
It has stated that initial payments of up to £100,000 have been made to the 73 postmasters whose convictions have been overturned, and compensation pay-outs to others. Paula Vennells has said she is sorry for the suffering caused.
