Post Office victim 'still not received a penny'

Keith Bell said he still had not received "a penny" in compensation

The inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal, which saw more than 900 sub-postmasters prosecuted for stealing because of incorrect information from the Horizon computer system, ends this week. However, some of the victims say they are still waiting for justice.

Former sub-postmaster Keith Bell, from Stockton, was found guilty of false accounting in 2002, declared bankrupt and lost his career.

But despite legislation to clear victims' names and pay them compensation becoming law in May, Mr Bell said he had still not received "a penny".

"You can go through scenarios in your head, what you'd like to do and all the rest of it, but you get to a point where you think, hang on, I haven't got it yet," he said.

The Post Office said, to date, £499m had been paid to 3,300 people.

Pauline Stonehouse said her compensation was reduced because of her breast cancer

Pauline Stonehouse was a sub-postmaster in Seaburn, Sunderland, and lost her home after being convicted for stealing £15,000 from the Post Office in 2008.

Ms Stonehouse's conviction was overturned and she has accepted compensation, but she said the amount had been reduced after it was decided she would not have been able to continue her work - even if she had not lost her job.

• How do the Post Office scandal compensation schemes work?

She said she was told because she was a carer for both her parents before their deaths, she would not have continued as a sub-postmaster.

"Then in 2018 I was diagnosed with breast cancer and they said basically because of that I wouldn't have continued as a postmaster either," she said.

A spokesperson for the government said it recognised the immeasurable suffering of victims of the scandal and was working tirelessly to provide them with full redress.

Last month, lawyers representing the firms involved in delivering compensation were questioned by the Business and Trade Select Committee, amid complaints about the slow progress and complexity of the various schemes.

"We do try to maximise the offers. We do try to give the benefit of the doubt. We assess that and we are looking at fairness across the board," Mark Chesher, a partner from Addleshaw Goddard told MPs.

Stephanie Gibson said her community shunned her after she was found not guilty

Stephanie Gibson worked as a clerk at South Pelaw Post Office.

A jury found her not guilty of theft from her post office, but some members of her community shunned her.

She said she had not left her County Durham home for much of the last 17 years and had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"I wouldn't think twice about walking into a pub or local shop - now I'm pushing myself to even get out of the car and go to the dentist," Ms Gibson said.

"It's 17 years of my life that I'm not going to get back and neither are my children or my partner.

"Yes, they can throw money at us, but it's not going to get 17 years back."

A Post Office spokesperson said it apologised "unreservedly" to the victims and that "today's Post Office is focused, alongside government, on paying redress as quickly as possible so that people can move forward with their lives".