A former sub-postmaster who was wrongly jailed in the Horizon IT scandal has rejected his compensation offer, saying it is not “fair”.
Sunil Patel, 62, was offered £600,000 compensation after his conviction was quashed this week.
The 62-year-old was sentenced to 15 months in prison after being wrongly accused of stealing £48,000 from the company while running a Post Office in St Mary’s Bay, Kent, with his wife Stella between 2008 and 2009.
He was one of more than 900 sub-postmasters prosecuted for stealing because of incorrect information provided by the faulty Horizon computer system.
After being convicted on three counts of falsifying accounts, he served nine months before being let out early for good behaviour.
Last week, Mr Patel finally received a letter from the Ministry of Justice saying his conviction had been overturned, something he describes as a “weight being lifted”.
But he says the government’s offer of £600,000 compensation, which includes the £48,000 he was ordered to pay back – does not go far enough.
The conviction meant Mr Patel, who now works for HM Revenue and Customs, had to sell off two of his properties to pay off the debt and pay back a business loan of £180,000.
He said: “They are offering one-off compensation for £600,000 which includes your shortfall.
“I was told I could take that if I wanted, but if I think it’s not fair I can fight them for a fairer amount. I had to go through so much suffering to pay off that £48,000.
“After the 15 years I have suffered and the really heavy losses, it [the £600,000] doesn’t compare to what would have happened if I hadn’t gone through that.
“People who didn’t go to prison were offered that, and I had to go for nine months.”
The Department of Business and Trade (DBT) has set up the redress scheme for postmasters who had their convictions overturned so they can access compensation.
Victims have the choice of taking a fixed settlement of £600,000 or they can opt to have a fully detailed assessment if they feel the sum is unfair, something Mr Patel has chosen to do.
He added: “I was branded a criminal when I didn’t do anything wrong, it was the worst time of my life. People would always talk behind your back to say I was the one who stole the money.
Hope for a new life
“Hopefully, we can start a new life again.”
Mr Patel said he tried to raise concerns about the financial discrepancies with the Post Office on several occasions but felt no one would listen to him.
The branch was shut down in 2009 and security guards were sent in to search the property.
Legal proceedings were then started and Mr Patel, who had run the site for five years, was given a court date a year later.
He explained he felt he had no other choice but to plead guilty in a bid to save his family from crippling debt.
He said: “People wouldn’t even look at me, they would cross the street to walk on the other side away from me.
“It was really embarrassing and it was worse for my wife and my kids. While I was in prison they bore the brunt of everything. They still needed to run the shop next door so they couldn’t avoid seeing anybody.
“People would ask ‘where is the money? When is the Post Office going to open and are we going to give back the money?’
‘We hardly ever went out’
“I have three daughters, my older daughter was at university in her final year and she came back a term early to help out with the shop.
“My other daughter was at school and everybody heard about it from the local and national press so it was embarrassing for them. Over the next 10 years, we hardly ever went out.
“If my family went to a social event, they would always get pointed out as the daughters of the man who went to prison.”
In a statement, a Post Office spokesman said it is “deeply sorry for the hurt and suffering” caused to the victims of the scandal.
“We continue to work alongside the government to do all we can to ensure justice and redress as swiftly as possible,” they added.
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: “We recognise that for postmasters who have had to endure hardships or even jail time like Mr Patel, no amount of compensation will ever be enough, and that they have waited too long to receive redress.
“We’re working tirelessly across government to bring Mr Patel and others who have had their Horizon convictions overturned with full, fair and swift redress, and have already paid out £363 million to more than 2,900 claimants across four schemes.”
