A former sub-postmistress fighting for justice after being accused by the Post Office of stealing £40,000 has shared her relief at the news she will be compensated.
Shazia Saddiq was running the Ryton Post Office in Gateshead and Westgate Hill Post Office in Newcastle when she was wrongly accused of stealing from the Westgate Hill branch by the Post Office and suspended in October 2016.
The 38-year-old from Scotswood, Newcastle, told Post Office officials a fault in the Horizon IT system, that was linked to the ATM in the branch, meant it would give false readings, but she said, "they wouldn't listen".
However, Shazia was not the only sub-postmistress to be accused of fraud by the Post Office. More than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were wrongfully convicted between 2000 and 2014, based on information from the Horizon IT system, installed and maintained by Fujitsu.
Although Shazia was never charged and prosecuted by the Post Office, she spent a long time fearing she was going to be arrested for a crime she didn't commit. In 2019, Shazia joined a group of 555 subpostmasters and sub-postmistresses who successfully challenged the Post Office over the accusations in the High Court.
A judge ruled that Horizon contained a number of “bugs, errors, and defects” and there was a “material risk” that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system. Despite the landmark victory, Shazia says she walked away with nothing after the group saw most of their £43 million settlement swallowed up by a “no win, no fee” arrangement with lawyers.
But now she is set to receive the same level of compensation as other sub-postmasters who were wrongly convicted under a new Government scheme announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Tuesday. The Treasury said the scheme, to be set up in the coming months, would ensure they received the same level of compensation as other sub-postmasters who had their convictions for financial crimes quashed.
Welcoming the news, Shazia said: "They have agreed that the 555 are going to be compensated. Everybody affected has been putting pressure on them for such a long time for this result to [finally] happen.
"It feels such a relief and I am so pleased for everybody who has been through this. It was so unfair that I had come out with nothing.
"I got no compensation at all. So it is such welcome news."
Just days after she was accused, Shazia felt forced to leave her home above the Westgate Hill Post Office after being attacked in the street. Shazia has spent the last six years in Oxford with her family, unable to face returning home because she believes the Post Office accusation ruined her reputation in the community.
"Being accused of stealing and having no way to prove my innocence, I wouldn't wish that on anyone," she said.
"After being told for so long that you are the only one this is happening to you think you can't do your job. So I welcome the news and feel relieved for everybody."
The Chancellor said he hopes the compensation will offer "some measure of comfort" to those affected. The announcement comes as a public inquiry into the scandal continues.
In a statement, Mr Sunak said: “The Horizon IT dispute has had a devastating impact on postmasters and their families, with many losing their livelihoods or being wrongly convicted for crimes they didn’t commit. Without the efforts of these postmasters, this terrible injustice may have never been uncovered so it is only right that they are compensated fully and fairly.
“That is why we have set up this new compensation scheme for those who played a crucial role bringing this scandal to light, which I hope provides a measure of comfort.”
Welcoming the announcement a Post Office spokesman said: "Since it came to light through media reports that around £46 million of the compensation provided to Group Litigation claimants was directed to the funders of their case, we have continually urged the Government to address this unfairness. We welcome the Government’s announcement that it will now do so."
BEIS minister Paul Scully said: “As well as apologies and accountability, people want proper compensation to be paid.
“Those people who exposed the scandal in the first place, the postmasters who won the court case against the Post Office have not been fairly compensated.
“But those who were not convicted were not entitled to receive Historical Shortfall Scheme (HSS) compensation themselves, which paradoxically could leave those postmasters eligible for receiving the HSS better compensated than those who won the court case.
“Now the Government recognises this just is not right, which is why the Chancellor announced today that we’re making funds available to ensure those in the GLO group are not financially disadvantaged by their decision to litigate against the Post Office. The GLO group will now be able to access the same levels of compensation as their non GLO peers.”
