Post Office scandal: Former manager fights for more compensation

Mrs Arch says she will "never ever stop fighting" her case

A former Post Office manager is fighting for more compensation after being wrongly accused of theft during the Horizon scandal.

Nicki Arch worked at the Chalford Hill branch near Stroud, but said her life "was suddenly swiped away".

In total, £58m was paid out but because Mrs Arch was found not guilty and did not go to prison, she received £8,000.

The Post Office said it is working with the Government to ensure former postmasters have justice.

"They will never ever compensate me for what they've done, it's impossible," said Mrs Arch.

"But I want what they've taken from me. I want to be in the position I would've been in if I'd carried on with business plans, savings. Instead it's all gone."

Error logs on the Horizon system show that bugs could cause losses

The Horizon scandal is named after a computer system installed by the Post Office in 1999 which turned out to be flawed.

Between 2000 and 2014, the Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses based on the system showing losses.

Some went to prison following convictions for false accounting and theft, and many were financially ruined, in what is considered the UK's most widespread miscarriage of justice.

Mrs Arch, who was accused of stealing money from her Post Office in 2000, said: "Initially it's the shame and the shock.

"It was widely advertised that I'd stolen money, when I hadn't touched a penny.

"It got to the point when I wouldn't go outside. The last straw was when I was spat on outside a supermarket in Stroud."

After two years, Mrs Arch was cleared of doing anything wrong, but she said it was too late.

The Post Office paid £58m to settle the case in 2019

The Justice for SubPostmasters Alliance (JSPA) said Mrs Arch's situation is that of many former workers.

The group said that huge legal costs meant there was not enough money for the compensation.

It is now pursuing a statutory inquiry into the scandal and an ombudsman's inquiry into the Government's role.

In a statement, the Post Office said it had "no control over individual payments made, but we have become aware that a significant part of the total was paid to funders and for legal costs".

"We therefore understand the growing sense of injustice of some claimants and continue to work with Government to make sure that postmasters have adequate justice and their compensation discussed in full," it added.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: "The government is committed to seeing these longstanding Horizon issues resolved, which is why we established a statutory inquiry to learn what went wrong and ensure something like this cannot happen again."