Post Office Horizon scandal: £600k compensation 'an insult' - victim

Janet Skinner was jailed in 2007 for nine months over an alleged shortfall of £59,000 from her Post Office branch in Hull

A sub-postmistress who was wrongly jailed for theft has said a £600,000 compensation offer by the government was "an insult".

More than 700 branch managers were falsely accused by the Post Office due to faulty accounting software.

Janet Skinner, from Hull, whose conviction was among 86 that were later overturned, said she was "infuriated" and would reject the deal.

The Post Office minister had said the sum was offered with "no ifs or buts".

Between 2000 and 2014, the Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses based on "flawed" information from a computer system called Horizon.

Described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history, dozens of convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in April 2021, subsequently paving the way for others to be overturned.

Ms Skinner, 52, was handed a nine-month sentence in 2007 over an alleged shortfall of £59,000 from her Post Office branch in Bransholme, Hull.

She served three months in prison before being released with an electronic tag, but eventually had her conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal in April 2021.

The stress of the case had meant she ended up in hospital for four months after she became paralysed and had to learn to walk again, she said.

Ms Skinner continues to pursue legal action over her case.

The former sub-postmistress said after what she and others had suffered, the £600,000 compensation offer to settle claims was "laughable but not in a funny way" .

"Who's actually determined this figure is enough?" she asked.

"If it was a member of their family who had been through what either I've been through, or many other postmasters have been through, would they think that was fair for them to accept that?"

The Post Office Horizon scandal has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history

She added: "I lost my home. I lost my job. I lost my office when I went to prison. I left my two teenage kids at home.

"My health just deteriorated. I ended up in Hull Royal Infirmary having to learn everything, and they think £600,000 is going to help me? I can't work for the rest of my life."

Ms Skinner said the compensation offered was highly unfair given she had been "left with a life sentence of those memories of what happened to me".

"The amount of people that have died before they've even had any kind of compensation - how do you compensate their families?" she asked.

"I don't understand the mentality of drawing out a number like that.

"I think, personally, all this money is going to do is make it cheaper for the government to pay out, because there's potentially over 700 cases that could be unsafe. That's a hell of a lot of finances for them."

A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: "We recognise that for postmasters who have had to endure hardships or even jail time, no amount of compensation will ever be enough. But this payment option aims to provide some sort of relief to those impacted.

"This £600,000 sum builds on the £21m that's been paid out to postmasters with overturned convictions so far and provides a quicker, easier option for people who don't want to go through any further assessment or legal route to compensation."

A public inquiry into the Horizon scandal, which started last year, led by chairman Sir Wyn Williams, is likely to conclude in 2024.

A spokesperson for the inquiry said: "Sir Wyn Williams has received a letter from the minister updating him on the government's announcement.

"He will be taking this new development into consideration when he investigates compensation matters further in Phase 5 of the inquiry."