Former Bristol sub-postmistress went bankrupt from IT scandal

Leanne Young had to file for bankruptcy after being a sub-postmaster for five years

A former sub-postmaster said it was an "absolute disgrace" that she was left to go bankrupt after being told she owed hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Leanne Young, 49, from Bedminster, worked in the St Philips Marsh post office in Bristol for five years and is a victim of the Horizon IT scandal.

She had to borrow a five-figure sum from her parents, who were made homeless, to pay back the money.

The Post Office said they are "deeply sorry" and are paying victims.

Ms Young said that she and her parents were left out of pocket "not far off a million pounds", adding that she has now accepted an interim payment from the Post Office, which has apologised to her.

But she said the money she has had back "isn't close" to the value of the house she lost.

She started working for the Post Office on Feeder Road in 2004 and said before the Horizon IT system she had a "good life" with a nice house and that she knew "exactly" how much money the office had as she did the counting by hand.

Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol, Ms Young said the new IT system "turned out to be the worst thing that ever happened" as she "lost everything".

She said: "I just think it's an absolutely disgrace. I think every single person who knew should be held accountable for what they had done to people like me.

"I count myself lucky that I only lost my house, my health and my sanity, but that is quite lucky to what other people had - like going to prison."

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.

The ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office has led to other post office staff coming forward

The former post-mistress said there were occasions when the system would tell her there was £25,000 in the safe and large amounts of money would mysteriously appear and then disappear in the system.

"It got to a point when I was so depressed," she said.

Things eventually got so bad she had to close the Post Office in 2009, file for bankruptcy and borrow a five-figure sum from "loving parents" to pay off a debt to the Post Office they claimed she owed.

"If I hadn't had my parents money I'd have probably been prosecuted," she said.

Her parents were then made homeless because they lived above the Post Office when Ms Young had to close it.

'Lost everything'

A new law was introduced on 13 March to clear the names of the hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly convicted and is expected the clear the majority of victims in England and Wales by the end of July.

There will be "enhanced" financial redress for sub-postmasters who, while not convicted or part of legal action against the Post Office, made good the apparent losses caused by the Horizon system from their own pockets.

They will be entitled to a fixed sum of £75,000 through the Horizon Shortfall Scheme, the government said.

Sub-postmasters who have already settled for less money will have their compensation topped up to this level, and people can instead choose to have their claims assessed as part of the usual scheme process, in which there is no limit to compensation.

Yet Ms Youngs said there was no way to put a price on the emotional damage victims have suffered.

The mother-of-two recalled a time when she was forced to bath her children in the dark as she could not afford to pay the electrics.

More on the Post Office scandal:

• Why were hundreds of Post Office workers prosecuted?

• PM backs calls to knight Post Office campaigner

• Post Office paid Fujitsu £95m to extend Horizon

• Can scheme to quash Post Office convictions work?

She said: "I'll never forget the auditor came when we were closing and he said to me 'you're not the first and you're not the last - you watch, one day this will all come out in the wash' and I've always clung onto that.

"I ended up going bankrupt as I couldn't pay bills with two small children, it was absolutely horrendous because you know people are talking about you.

"It was the shame and embarrassment - going from a really nice house to renting and trying to find somewhere with two kids that would have you because I wasn't working - it was absolutely horrendous."

The site where Ms Young used to work

Ms Young said: "It has now taken from 2017 till this year to get a payment from the Post Office, if it wasn't for that Mr Bates programme I'd still be fighting to get that payment because now it's in the public eye.

"You can't put money on what people went through and what they lost.

"They did apologise to me in the letter and they admitted I wouldn't have been made bankrupt if it wasn't for them."

The Post Office is paying millions back to former sub postmasters

Ms Young said: "I have got such a loving family, had I not had the support from my parents to bail me out the money they said I'd owed them - I don't know what I'd have done.

"The Post Office is an absolute shambles, they shouldn't be allowed to be in charge and have their own legal team and be allowed to prosecute people."

A Post Office spokesperson said: "We are deeply sorry for the pain which has been suffered by so many people, their families and friends throughout the Horizon IT Scandal.

"But an apology from Post Office is of course not enough and we are working as fast as we can to pay redress, with offers of more than £179m made to around 2,800 Postmasters to date.

"We fully share the aims of the current Public Inquiry, set up to get to the truth of what happened in the past and accountability."

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