Post Office scandal: Workers' bittersweet year after legal win

Lorraine Williams and Noel Thomas had their convictions quashed in the Post Office Horizon scandal in April

"No amount of money will cover what we've been through," said Lorraine Williams.

She - along with Noel Thomas - was one of 72 former postmasters and postmistresses who had convictions thrown out by the courts this year.

The two both ran post offices on Anglesey, and both found themselves wrongly accused of stealing cash.

They had been caught up in what has become known as the Post Office Horizon scandal.

Lorraine was handed a year-long suspended sentence and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work back in 2012.

Noel fared worse - he was given a nine-month jail term.

But looking back at the year they were finally exonerated of any wrong, their victory remains bittersweet.

"Our names were cleared in April, but it's still ongoing - we're still fighting," said Lorraine.

Lorraine and Noel met before Christmas to discuss their bittersweet year

"I'm still a bit angry, personally, for what they have put us through," added Lorraine.

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She had been a lynchpin in the small community of Llandaniel Fab when she first took up a role as a sub-postmistress, alongside her work as a warden on an estate for the elderly.

Eleven years ago, her world began to fall apart after reporting electrical problems with the Horizon computer over Christmas.

Within weeks the computer showed money and stock was missing.

In June 2011, Post Office lawyers arrived to tell her £14,600 was missing.

The post office where Lorraine once worked, until her conviction for false accounting

"They were saying 'it is only happening to you - you were alone - nothing like this has every happened before," she explained.

"So you believed them. You were one little person and they were a big company, and you just believed them."

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In 2012, on legal advice Lorraine pleaded guilty to false accounting in a desperate bid to stay out of jail.

She lost her jobs, her home tied to the elderly warden role and had to take out a second mortgage to repay the Post Office - money she had never taken.

But she was not the only one on the island who lived through the experience, despite what she was told.

Noel Thomas at the post office he used to work at in Gaerwen, Anglesey

Six years earlier in Gaerwen, Noel Thomas faced accusations over £48,000 alleged to be missing.

Again, he had been advised to plead guilty and throw himself on the mercy of the court - but he could not escape a prison term.

"David fighting Goliath, wasn't it?" remarked Noel, now 75.

"On your own, you had no chance.

"Having worked for the Post Office for 42 years, you wouldn't believe the institution you gave your life to would treat you this way."

But Lorraine and Noel were not on their own, it turns out.

Up and down the UK, those facing claims of theft and false bookkeeping were beginning to talk to each other.

A pattern emerged - and at the centre of it all, the Horizon computer systems.

It led to a group of 550 staff taking a group legal case against the Post Office, including one of the main claimants being Llandudno postmaster Alan Bates.

In December 2019, the Post Office was told to pay £58m to settle the dispute - and paving the way for Lorraine and Noel's convictions to be overturned.

After 15 years - and time behind bars - Noel saw his conviction quashed

Then in December this year, the UK government confirmed it would pick up the bill to compensate those dragged through criminal prosecutions.

The Post Office's chief executive, Nick Read, said that decision could not "change the past", but it was "right that meaningful compensation is provided to victims of the Horizon scandal as fast as possible".

He said "many former postmasters have waited a long time for justice" and the compensation for those wrongly convicted "recognises the impact on the lives of those affected".

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Noel has had a £100,000 interim payment, but said he remained bitter about his experiences over the past 16 years.

He said he wanted those responsible to be held to account.

"Take their money off them, that's what you want to do," he said.

"Make them feel like the 500 or so that have been involved. Make them feel the same. Make them penniless, if you like, and see what they feel like, going through what we went through."

A judge-led inquiry into what happened is already under way, and is expected to step up a gear in the new year.

"It's still ongoing isn't it. Me, personally, I just want it over with," said Lorraine.

"It's been a horrendous nearly 11 years now. It's been horrible.

"I had never, ever been out of work, having to re-mortgage, hiding in the house and everything, it's horrible. A very dark place."

Like many others caught in the scandal, Lorraine has had a letter offering an apology

Noel said he was still waiting for the ordeal to end, and wanted redress - not just for himself but for the hundreds of others caught in the scandal.

"They want their lives back - they've been ruined," he said.

"Somebody somewhere knows what's gone on."