Ex-Walsall postmistress says Post Office charges led to a breakdown

Jess Kaur said she had a breakdown and ended up being sectioned in hospital

A former postmistress says she suffered a mental breakdown after being wrongly accused of stealing £11,000 from the West Midlands branch she operated.

Jess Kaur was one of hundreds of sub postmasters to be accused or convicted of theft and fraud because of a faulty computer system called Horizon.

Charges against her were dropped in 2009, but not before she attempted suicide and was sectioned in hospital.

The Post Office said it was doing all it could to "right the wrongs".

Ms Kaur ran Lazy Hill Post Office in Aldridge in Walsall, and discovered that she had been using a faulty pin pad on the system which took money out of people's accounts twice - but she was being accused of stealing the second amount.

"I didn't know what was going on until the auditors turned up at the post office and they said I needed to go with them to a police station," she told BBC WM.

'Really scared'

She said she told police she had done nothing wrong and during a break in her interview was told: "You're the only one it's happened to, admit it, plead guilty and we'll get you back in your office the next day".

The ITV drama has led to other post office staff coming forward

"Then afterwards we did find out that it wasn't just me, it was a hell of a lot of other people it was happening to," she said.

Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and mistresses based on information from Horizon which made it look as though money was missing from their sites.

On Monday evening, Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake told MPs that government will leave "no stone unturned" in seeking justice for convicted branch mangers.

• Why were hundreds of Post Office workers prosecuted?

• A TV drama may help deliver change for postmasters

• PM would back committee in Post Office honour probe

Mrs Kaur said she is yet to receive any compensation. The 36 charges of theft against her were thrown out by a judge on the basis of Post Office representatives conceding her pin pad was in fact faulty, she said.

She sought no legal help when she was interviewed by police because she said she knew she was innocent although went on to plead guilty.

She said did it because "that's what they [police] told me" and she could get back to work or if not, according to police, she would face further proceedings.

"I obviously got really scared. I didn't take any legal representative with me because I knew I was innocent. I hadn't done anything wrong," she said.

Mrs Kaur the whole experience "ruined" her, but she was pleased that her story features in the ITV drama

But, she said the state of affairs overall became too much and she had a breakdown and attempted suicide at home before being admitted to hospital in Walsall for six months in 2011 for her mental health.

After medication did not work, she received 14 treatments of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) which she said was successful, but "did not work they way it should have done" and led to childhood memory loss.

"After that, I did try and commit suicide again when I was in hospital," she said adding that her family agreed she should have the treatment but later regretted the decision.

She said the whole experience "ruined" her, but she was pleased that her story features in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

"Everybody's story is different. There's people that have died, people are still seriously ill and compensation and closure is just not coming to an end - we just want closure on everything and to carry on with our lives," she added.

The Post Office said it was "deeply sorry" and offers of compensation totalling more than £130m have been made to date, the vast majority of which have been agreed and paid.

"We're continuing to make interim payments in other cases. We fully share the aims of the current public inquiry, set up to establish what went wrong in the past, and the accountability for it."

In a statement on Tuesday evening, Adam Crozier, CEO of Royal Mail Group between 2003 and early 2010, said he wanted to express "heartfelt sympathies" to those who were "so wronged by the tragic miscarriages of justice and for whom justice has been denied so long".

He said while he had no involvement in the Horizon issue during his time with Royal Mail he felt "deeply sorry" for the lives that were ruined and stood ready to participate in the inquiry with the aim of making sure the "tragic situation never happens again".

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in Mrs Kaur's story, find support via the BBC Action Line.