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Ronnie Campbell MP Sei
for Blyth Valley
42 Renwick Road
Rye een Blyth
i Arm Meth)
7 DEC ae &:
snananananennnananen-
Thursday, 06 December 2012 eee
National Federation of SubPostmasters
Evelyn House
22 Windlesham Gardens
Shoreham-by-Sea
West Sussex BN43 5AZ
Re: Ms Sarah Burgess-Boyde, GRO i
Dear Sir/Madam,
Ihave received a letter from the above constituent regarding her concerns on the
subject of the Post Office. I enclose a copy of this, so I will not reiterate.
I have been in contact with Ms Burgess-Boyde for some time now and hope that you can
be of assistance to her case.
I would be most grateful if you could investigate the concerns raised and to send mea
response that I can forward to Ms Burgess-Boyde, for ease of reference.
If you need any further information please contact the office.
I appreciate your time in this instance, and I look forward to hearing from you in due
course.
Yours sincerely
Ronnie Campbell MP
Enc
BLYTH SPARTANS I
ARC Ronnie Campbell M.P Serving Our Community I.
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3" December 2012
Mr Ronnie Campbell MP
Constituency Office
42 Renwick Road
BLYTH
Northumberland
NE24 2LQ
Dear Mr Campbell
Reference: Former Post Office Branch situated at 22 Starbeck Avenue,
Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE2 1RJ
Further to our meeting held at your office on 19" September 2012. 1 am so sorry for
the delay in writing but as was explained during our meeting this whole matter has
had such a profound adverse effect on me that even thinking about what has happened
makes me feel quite unwell.
At the time of our meeting you asked that I write to you so that you are able to pass
the details of my case onto the relevant parties within the House of Commons.
You have already been furnished with the outline details of my case up to and
including the period until after my acquittal at Newcastle Crown Court on 7"
December 2011. I trust that you will be able to pass this information on without the
need for me to go though everything again.
The purpose of this letter is to try and get some questions answered, which I very
much hope that you and your colleagues may be able to help with.
{ was running a successful business which myself and my partner, Mr Ray Clarence,
had. built from a very low ebb over a period of some four years. When I took over the
Post Office branch at the above address it was very ran down and the subpostmasters
salary was only in the region of 20k per annum, over the ensuing four years the salary
increased year on year to around 60k. This was achieved with hard work by ourselves
with no assistance from Post Office Lid (POL). I was informed on more than one
occasion over this period that my Post Office branch was one of the few within the
network that actually made money for POL.
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One has to ask ones self, why did POL pursue this seemingly malicious prosecution,
when all the evidence presented to them on numerous occasions during the period 2s
November 2009 - 7" December 2011 pointed plainly to the fact that I had done
nothing to warrant even being suspended from my position as subpostmaster, let alone
having my contract terminated and subsequently being prosecuted for thefi?
I feel at this juncture it is important for me to make some points about the general
behaviour of POL during both their contractual investigation and their criminal
prosecution of me,
During both parts of POL’s investigations my defence case was supported by strong
documentary evidence. The haplessness of the case against me was such that a
number of prosecution witness statements submitted for the criminal prosecution
underpinned the case for the defence. Signed submissions provided to POL by my
partner and myself had been altered prior to being given in evidence to the Crown
Court. Whether by accident or design, POL misled the judge at one of the pre-trial
mentions. Evidence exists that POL cannot keep and produce accurate records and
they operate the Horizon system without adequate safeguards to its integrity and
probity, thus disregarding their fiduciary responsibilities.
I feel that POL know beyond any doubt what occurred at my branch regarding the
Bank of Ireland ATM and at the best they are incompetent and at the worst fraudulent
in their actions against me. Plainly there has been an intention to deceive on POL’s
part.
Upon the closure of the Post Office branch at the above address the branch was
relocated to the next street. The terms and conditions of the contract with the new
subpostmaster were changed, the renumeration substantially less. I have been
informed that this branch has subsequently closed and the nearest Post Office branch
is now in Newcastle city centre. I feel that this whole matter has been an act of
commercial sabotage, sheer recklessness, by POL and amongst the losers are my staff,
ourselves, but more importantly the thousands of customers that used to use my Post
Office branch.
1 would be most grateful if you could forward my case onto the relevant parties s
can be looked into more thoroughly and questions answered. As we discussed during
our meeting, this whole affair has nearly broken me and it was all so unnecessary.
My livelihood has been taken away, we have lost our life savings and my reputation
has been ruined.
There must be easier ways for POL to close branches, although squandering funds
from the public purse does not seem to bother them in the slightest, they appear to be
answerable to no one, lack transparency and appear to have free reign to do whatever
they like with impunity.
‘This cannot be right, surely it is time that POL were held accountable for their
actions. Not just in my case but also for the hundreds of other former subpostmasters
that have been subjected to POL’s perverse logic, bullying and steamroller tactics.
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L look forward to hearing from you in due course and in the meantime, if you require
any further information please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sarah ‘Burges Boyde
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