Post Office scandal: 'They did everything to stop justice'
- Published
Alan McLaughlin said vindication is needed but people continue to suffer from the scandal
A former sub-postmaster who had a fraud conviction quashed as part of the Post Office scandal has said something needs to be done to help those waiting for vindication.
The Post Office prosecuted more than 700 people based on data from faulty Horizon software between 1999 and 2015.
Some people went to prison for false accounting and theft, while others were financially ruined.
Alan McLaughlin said that 20 years of his life was taken from him.
In 2022, his conviction for fraud-related offences was overturned by the Court of Appeal.
While the scandal has been public knowledge for some time, an ITV drama - Mr Bates vs The Post Office - which aired last week, catapulted the issue back into the spotlight.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the government would bring in a new law to "swiftly" exonerate and compensate victims.
He was addressing the scandal in the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Questions.
The law will not automatically apply in Northern Ireland or Scotland, but Postal Affairs Minister Kevin Hollinrake said that Downing Street was "keen" to extend the provisions.
The courts system in Northern Ireland is different from England and Wales.
A public inquiry into the scandal began in February 2021 and will resume again on Thursday after breaking for Christmas.
'They've done everything to stop this'
Mr McLaughlin said the Post Office stopped at nothing to cover up the scandal.
"People haven't realised the extent to which the Post Office has continued to use their powers, all the resources of a publicly-owned corporation, all for the purpose of stymieing the process of appeals and the process of compensation.
"They have done everything in their power to stop this." he added.
Mr McLaughlin said he lost decades of his life and the scandal has damaged many lives.
"There's 20 years of my life, which didn't turn out the way that I had planned them to," he added.
"There are several thousand people in the same position, who had livelihoods damaged, reputations damaged, health damaged.
"So it's been it's been quite a range of of things which were inflicted upon people by a publicly-owned body."
He said that, even with vindication, that does not take away from what he lost.
'I don't have much faith'
'We were made bankrupt by Horizon scandal'
Deirdre Connolly, from County Tyrone, was one of a number of people from Northern Ireland who were wrongly accused.
She lost her job at Killeter Post Office in 2010 and had to borrow money from her family to pay more than £15,500 to the Post Office.
She feels the prime minister did not go far enough.
"I didn't hear an apology, it lasted only 30 seconds, there are no details. I don't have much faith at the moment," she said.
"I thought the convictions could have been overturned in one swoop today. That would have been the best thing".
Fiona Elliott said the whole ordeal was still raw and difficult to process.
Speaking after Mr Sunak spoke in parliament, Fiona Elliott, a former sub-postmistress from County Tyrone said she was "happy".
"They are realising what has went wrong and admitting responsibility for everything.
"I am glad now that everybody know all these people were all innocent at the end of the day."
'Money was just disappearing in front of us'
She told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today that the whole ordeal was still raw and difficult to process.
Ms Elliott said that she and her husband bought the Post Office and shop in the rural village of Clady, County Tyrone, in Northern Ireland in 2005.
She hoped it would help provide financial security for her family in the future.
"Every week we were getting a lot discrepancies and shortfalls in the system," Ms Elliott told the programme.
"I kept putting the money in from the shop to the Post Office to keep it right but we never had a plus, it was always minus, the money was just disappearing in front of us."
Ms Elliott said she had contacted the Post Office a number of times and requested that they carry out an audit.
The Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses after faulty software made it look like money was missing
When they did this, they discovered a £6,000 shortfall, which she then had to pay straight away.
Ms Elliott was then suspended for a number of weeks before the Post Office later confirmed there would be no further action.
She was offered redundancy at a time when rural post offices were closing, and resigned in 2008.
Speaking to the inquiry back in May 2022, Ms Elliot recalled looking through bins at night time in a bid to account for money lost through the faulty IT system.
'Lives have been destroyed'
Ms Elliott said she watched the ITV programme and said it was incredibly powerful, but also made her feel angry and annoyed that "so many people have suffered and lives have been destroyed".
"There were so many people involved, thousands and many more people may come forward after the programme."
The cast of ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office follows the lives of those caught up in the IT fiasco
The former sub-postmistress said she wants anyone responsible for the scandal brought before the courts to answer for it.
She said she had not been able to make peace with her own experience yet and believes holding people accountable will help her find closure.
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