Post Office Scandal: Wrongly convicted pregnant sub-postmaster 'collapsed' following sentence

first start by getting your reaction to the public inquiry today as Adele reminded us it's been going on for 3 years now it's traveled the country hearing from people affected like you we're now hearing the other side of it and you heard from that investigator there should point out not your investigator although he is going to speak to the inquiry at some point we understand what did you make of what he said you know it is outrageous it's just like and everybody all the witnesses which are coming forward they need to be more serious they need to they need to see be playing with people's lifeare they need to be serious and do if they want to assist assisted properly how are you treated by investigators because there were some accusations made to Steven Brer which he denied of investigators acting like Mafia style gangsters of being bullies of forcing people into Corners to make up a story because we don't know what happened simply wouldn't suffice what was your treatment like yeah I I called them like a bouncer they were like you know they were very tall very big look down on you gave me the one who gave me the warning so they like they warned you they like make you scared it was like that so there's nobody else it's just like they them and you just they giving you warnings that they said my investigator said to me anytime you have £500 short will take the post office away £500 £500 right okay let's take you back to the beginning of your journey with a post office and and when you took over a post office this is an exciting time right for you and your family this is a big investment you put investment into that business to make it work so you are already sort of owing money yeah you're leveraged in there when you were trained on the horizon it system you've got a background in finance control in the city you know your numbers yeah in training you spotted problems yeah on my very first day at the trading at the post office we were like 80 short when I asked the trainer why is that and he said oh you just had an audit yesterday it's never Penny to Penny so just make sure you balance the till which mean I have to put my own personal money into the post office and that never stopped it's never Penny to Penny yeah when you bring in a computer system when it comes to finance that is what it's designed to do to wipe out human error okay so alarm bells are already ringing but you're in it now aren't you this is your livelihood this is where you're going yeah um talk to me about where you ended up because you saw short Falls that you were putting back into the till you got a knock on the door one day 3 years into your post office Dream from Auditors who told you that there was a shortfall of how much well originally was £80,000 I told them there will be yeah 80 I told them when they came in there will be a shortfall so they made £80,000 then the temporary postmaster took over he found 2,000 over so that from there he BEC 78 and then actually prosecute me for just under 75 so you went to court and you refused to plead guilty but you were advised to why didn't you from the obvious you didn't you didn't do it yeah I plead guilty for the false accounting because I signed the document when I know the money isn't there I've plead guilty for the Fig but never for the theft charge why should I I haven't taken a single penny out of there so why should I play guilty for the theft charge well you went to court what was it like that day because you didn't expect to get a custodial sentence you had a 10-year-old and you were standing there in the dock pregnant with your second child what was that day like s it was on my eldest and 10th birthday I was sentenced I till that day I never thought like I had a faith in the system I thought it will be all fine it will be all fine why why would I go to the prison for that crime and never committed but when judge said 15 month imprisonment I was shocked I collapsed when I opened my eyes I was in the hospital from there I've lost my faith in the system anything is possible here you told your boy that you were going to be home yes his favorite Curry for his birthday and you didn't go home and I couldn't even call him that day I spoke to him next day because I was in the hospital that day a nightmare already up until this point but it got worse you were taken to Europe's biggest women's prison in s what was that like you were pregnant you were vulnerable you were behind bars for something you just didn't do and nobody believed you it was horrible if I wouldn't been pregnant I would have killed myself and being in the prison of like people were sell coming there it was like a blood all over the place I never thought I'm going to come out alive from there probably got contaminated with something so it was the most horrible experience how did you keep the faith I mean you got released after four months for good behavior yeah how did you get through those four months it's just the family it's my my husband my older son that kept me going that kept this with a strong bound touch would we are truly blessed to a wonderful family so that kept me going we knew we knew that we never going to give up we going to still fighting and we knew it's going to be bit longer but not this long yeah but that kept us going well as I said you were released after four months for good behavior with an electronic tag which you were wearing when you gave birth to your second child true so while giving birth all I had in mind what Midwife would be thinking what kind of mother I'm going to be what if you know because they warned me if I break my curfew they will take it take me back into the prison I was think I hope you know like they know that I'm giving birth I'm not breaking curfew so all that kind of things were going my mind while giving birth so stressful and and you touched on it there and how you felt you might be treated when giving birth the stigma yeah around being sent to prison of wearing an electronic tag how long did you have to wear that for nearly four months what was it like coming out of prison because again your nightmare doesn't end there in fact it's still continuing to this day but the stigma you were labeled in the press a pregnant Thief your husband was abused in the street and you couldn't find work what was life like it was horrible so financially we've been been put in pressure deput post office and I refused to go out because I was I love my family but I didn't want word to know that I'm my kid's mom and my husband's wife because I had I was so scared to give my full name as well I if somebody asked my name was just a SEMA I was late to pick up the kids they Googled me and they find I'm the I'm the one pregnant Thief which they seen pictures and all that so it was a nightmare till 2021 when my conviction was overturned yeah um your husband Dinda by chance came across the journalist Nick Wallace who is the journalist that brought this to The Wider public to public attention he's written a book about the post office Scandal he's been your champion from the very start yeah and he gave your story to Nick Wallace by chance and that's what sparked this whole thing talk to me about how that occurred because that's quite remarkable it is that's like a a moment of Fate Serendipity yeah while I was in bronfeld so it was in the Twitter so we run a taxi company and they taxi company follow BBC Sur as well so they were looking for they was asking to expand the business to have some taxi contract from BBC and then they like oh no don't have a contract but like if you have any story then theyve said like okay if you want to listen to real story you have to talk to me and that's how from that onward Nick wall is bless him so he's still like keeping keeping the story alive yeah from a a chance tweet or unfolded um how do you want those responsible to be held to account because we're talking about the legalities that the moment aren't we the new law to get everyone's name clear on mass we're talking about compensation but what do you want to happen there's a big big big list by I summarize it I definitely want post office Royal Mail for for me they're both together because that's they were come bined when they prosecuted me for just to House of Parliament the government each and the and the minister who signed who gave the project Horizon to the post office I want each and every individual who responsible to go behind the bar their property should be confiscated and the money should be distributed among the victims because they need to feel the pain They confiscated my property they put me put us behind the bar for the reason for the crime you never committed your conviction was overturned in 2021 and you were one of the 500 57 claimants to whom the post office agreed to pay 558 million in compensation after losing what was at the time a landmark civil case it should be pointed out that sounds like a lot of money but a lot of that was tied up in legal cost wasn't it and you were given an interim compensation of £100,000 back in 2021 this talk about compensation what does that mean to you because you've had to carry on you know and try and pull money together for your family you know this talk about compensation what does it really mean to you know it's it's not the compensation it's not that we're begging any money from them we asking our own money back from them so there is nothing they can there's no price you took from us there is no price tag they can put it us like for the torure there we have old Us in the family went through it so it's our own money so I don't know why there's a delay for that

Channel: Sky News

Views: 36,067

Keywords: post office, post office scandal, the great post office scandal, horizon post office scandal documentary, mr bates vs the post office, horizon post office scandal, mr bates vs the post office itv, scandal, post office scandal uk, post office horizon scandal, post office scandal panorama, post office scandal public inquiry, govt legislation for post office workers, post office convictions overturned, wrongly convicted sub postmaster, seema misra, the uk tonight with sarah jane mee

Id: UW7ME5J7oJQ

Length: 9min 13sec (553 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 11 2024