Kate's sub-postmaster: 'At last we can hold our heads up high'
- Published
Mr Shingadia welcomes Wednesday's news that hundreds of others will also now be cleared
A former sub-postmaster who used to count the Prince and Princess of Wales as customers has said others wrongly convicted would "at last be able to hold their up heads high".
Hasmukh Shingadia who runs a store in Berkshire was handed a suspended sentence for false accounting in 2010.
Mr Shingadia, who went to the royal wedding, said his conviction - quashed in 2021 - tore his life apart.
He said he was "overjoyed" at the Prime Minister's pledge to exonerate others.
Shortly after going to the royal wedding in 2011 with his wife, he was wrongly convicted of false accounting
Mr Shingadia said after he was accused of theft after accounting failures with the Horizon computer system.
"It was hard, really really hard - they were really bad times", he said.
Known as Hash, he said he kept fighting "to put myself right and for the sake of my family - I couldn't let them down".
Responding to the new law intended to "swiftly exonerate and compensate victims", he said: "I am really overjoyed...
"Not only for myself but for the other sub-postmasters who have been waiting so long to have their conviction overturned at last they will be able to hold their up heads high."
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
After he was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to carry out almost 200 hours of community service, he said the Middleton family were among those who supported him, but others turned their backs on him.
"A lot of peopled shunned [me], not only the community but also members of my own family as well, but luckily there were other people who stood by me," he explained.
After The Court of Appeal quashed his conviction villagers held a party in Mr Shingadia's Upper Bucklebury shop, which is no longer also a post office.
An inquiry has been under way since 2021 but the scandal hit the headlines after ITV aired a dramatisation of the events last week.
The prime minister said the government would bring in a new law to clear the names of all the sub-postmasters and mistresses in England and Wales who were wrongfully convicted because of a faulty computer system.
Have you been personally affected by the Post Office scandal? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk, external.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:
WhatsApp: +44 7756 165803
Tweet: @BBC_HaveYourSay, external
Please read our terms & conditions and privacy policy
If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk, external. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.
Follow BBC South on Facebook, external, X, external, or Instagram, external. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk, external.
- Published11 January
- Published11 January
- Published21 July 2011
