How much is a year of your life lost to a wrongful prison sentence worth? How much your home, your marriage, your good name in the community? These are the questions being asked by victims of a second IT scandal at the Post Office, first exposed by the The i Paper last year.
After more than 12 months of telling their stories about Capture, a faulty piece of accounting software used in the 90s long before Horizon, the Government has now laid out how it intends to compensate them.
The bill is likely to be huge. At least 2,500 sub-postmasters used Capture between 1992 and 1999. Just as with the Horizon scandal, many of them were wrongly blamed by the Post Office for shortfalls in their accounts and were forced to hand over thousands of pounds of their own money, sacked, or prosecuted.
This newspaper uncovered documents which show the Post Office was well aware Capture was prone to bugs and glitches, but carried on blaming sub-postmasters anyway.
After commissioning an independent investigation, the Government now admits there is a “reasonable likelihood” Capture caused the shortfalls – and families are hoping the first convictions will be overturned at the Court of Appeal soon.
But the wheels of justice turn painfully slowly, as Horizon victims are only too aware. In the meantime, a Government pledge to start compensation payouts is just reward for Capture victims after decades of uncertainty.
It also demonstrates the power of investigative journalism to deliver results for those who might not otherwise have had their voices heard.
Comments
Leave a Comment