Post Office Horizon victim wants bosses to face justice

Louise Dar’s life was left in tatters after her family were forced to close their business in Lenzie, near Glasgow, when faulty data from the organisation’s Horizon accounting system flagged shortfalls at her branch totalling £44,000.

The 41-year-old says she spotted issues with the software within weeks of first using it, and despite raising concerns with auditors and senior officials at the Post Office, Louise and husband Rehman were told the errors lay with them and ordered to pay back the cash.

In an exclusive interview with the Glasgow Times, Louise explained how she was trapped because her contract with the Post Office meant she had to give a year’s notice and find another person to take over the business before she would be released.

Louise Dar (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest)

Louise, who worked as an IT analyst before opening the branch, said: “There was absolutely no way out, it was utterly soul destroying. I knew something wasn’t right in the first couple of weeks of using the system. The auditor sent out by the Post Office struggled to use it too and logged our cash, stamps and stock wrongly, leaving us with an immediate shortfall of £977, which we had to settle.

“I raised the issue with the Post Office but was fobbed off time and time again. Branch managers agree when they are taken on to pay any deficits on their accounts, and this was repeatedly held over us.

“I’d lie in bed and worry myself sick over whether the system was going to balance the next day. I kept manual logs of everything and would try and work out why the figures were different from what the Horizon software was reporting, but it was impossible to fathom it out. No one would listen to my concerns and the deficit kept climbing and climbing. What should have been a fantastic business opportunity for us soon became a living nightmare.”

Louise is sharing her story after explosive ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office catapulted the Horizon scandal back into the public eye. It has fuelled an outpouring of anger and has now resulted in former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells agreeing to hand back her CBE after a petition calling for her to be taken to task reached over one million signatures.

ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office (Image: free)

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More than 700 postmasters were ­prosecuted for theft and false accounting between 2000 and 2014 after the PO’s flawed Fujitsu IT system wrongly recorded financial shortfalls. Some served time in jail while many were labelled thieves and shunned by their communities as they were robbed of their livelihoods.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said they were victims of “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) - which investigates possible miscarriages of justice – wrote to 73 potential victims of the Horizon scandal in Scotland in 2020. Several sub postmasters will appear in court to give fresh evidence within the coming days in the long-running legal bid to finally clear their names.

Mum-of-three Louise said: “I was in tears watching the first episode of the TV programme because it brought everything flooding back, however it also perfectly highlights the injustice so many of us have faced.

“The outpouring of public support since it aired has been incredible, and I think people finally see just how horrendous it was. I was never prosecuted, but many were and the right and proper thing to do is to exonerate them. Decent hard-working folk should not be held responsible for the failings of the Post Office.

“I also want those at the very top of the organisation to finally face justice. I had to find £44,000 out of my own pocket to pay a debt I never owed, and that should be refunded immediately.

“I’m delighted public pressure had led to Paula Vennells handing back her CBE, but she has so many more questions to answer. If a member of the public commits a theft, they are hauled into court and prosecuted, so why should those who ran the Post Office get away with taking money from innocent people? The public inquiry has gone on for years, but we won’t give up in our fight to see those at the very top of this scandal be held to account.

“We need every single conviction to be quashed and compensation paid out without any further delay.”

Louise, who received an apology from the Post Office, says her family are still trying to rebuild their lives after being forced to close their business. The couple ploughed their life savings into the shop in the heart of the community where Louise grew up.

For her, the worst part was her mother passing away without seeing her daughter’s name cleared. The day before her funeral, Louise was also summoned to a suspension meeting by the Post Office and describes the toll this took on her as ‘unimaginable’.

Louise, who now works for a local authority, added: “My mum was very ill while all of this was going on, but there was no sympathy or support. Then, after she passed away, I was informed that I had to attend a suspension meeting right before her funeral. It was the last thing that should have happened while I was grieving.

“My mum knew how much the business meant to us and she was very proud when we first opened our doors in 2014.  We picked a great location next to a train station and soon extended to take in the PO counter.

“We could never have imagined how it would all turn out; it still causes me sleepless nights. We lost our livelihood but also our standing in the community. Even now I get people passing me with a guilty look on their faces because they finally know the reality of what we went through and how they behaved towards us at the time.”

 A Post Office spokesperson said: “We fully share the aims of the current public inquiry, set up to establish what went wrong in the past and the accountability for it.

“We are acutely aware of the human cost of the scandal and are doing all we can to right the wrongs of the past, as far as that is possible. Both the Post Office and the government are committed to providing full, fair and final compensation for the people affected. To date, offers of more than £138 million have been made to around 2,700 Postmasters, the majority of which have been agreed and paid. Interim payments continue to be made in other cases which have not yet been resolved.”