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Witness Name: Ms Moira Hegarty
Statement No.: WITNO219_01
Exhibits: None
Dated.......
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THE POST OFFICE HORIZON INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF MS MOIRA HEGARTY
I, MS MOIRA HEGARTY WILL SAY as follows:
INTRODUCTION
i I am grateful to the Chair to be invited to provide a “human impact” statement,
concerning the physical, psychological, emotional, reputational and financial
consequences to me and my family of being held responsible for shortfalls shown by
the Horizon IT system and Post Office Limited’s actions toward me and my family. The
initial paragraphs below provide a brief summary of my background, and provide
context to the detail of the human impact of the Horizon scandal on me and my family.
This statement does not reflect a full account of my experiences or those of my family
and if necessary or required I will provide further witness statement evidence.
BACKGROUND
2. I first began working for Post Office Ltd in August 2001 when I was appointed as Crown
Office Employee at Middleton Post Office, in Middleton, Rochdale.
3. I then became Subpostmistress of Limeside Post Office, Oldham in January 2012 to
6 June 2015.
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4. The Limestone Post Office was inside a retail store selling hardware, greetings cards
and stationery.
5. When I took over the branch, I was required to sign the initial paperwork. However,
when the Post Office trainers came on the day of my appointment, I was told there
was other documentation for me to sign. The additional paperwork was brough to me
gradually over a period of a few weeks, possibly months. I understood this to be
standard paperwork and was not advised that I needed to consult legal advice on the
contents.
TRAINING AND SUPPORT
6. I was told by the Post Office that I would have two trainers with me for two weeks
starting from the first day that I took over the office.
7. However, as I had been a previous Post Office Ltd employee, my trainers seemed to
take for granted that I was more familiar with the systems than I was. They made very
sporadic visits, even though I had no experience of balancing transactions, nor
balancing a cash machine.
8. I did attend some off-site training at Stockport Crown Office for 2 weeks, which was
classroom based in an office upstairs. Again, as I had previous counter experience,
there was not too much emphasis on my training needs. I was allowed to go home
early and start late. Most points in the training had no bearing on the transactions that
I was going to do in branch. There was no training given on how to balance or roll over
takings.
9. The training I did receive covered, logging in/ logging off; basic transactions; the
"remming in" of cash was covered but very basic stuff and no indication of what to do
if there was a problem.
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10.
11,
The training was absolutely inadequate. I made my feelings very clear at the time to
my trainer. Her name was Marina Grinrod. Her response was that it would all fall into
place. She offered no practical advice and was more interested in chatting about non-
work-related stuff and getting me to fill in a feedback survey to say how well she had
trained me.
I requested further training but was told that I was not entitled to any. I did later
receive some lottery training, when Post Office Ltd said ! had to do the lottery in my
branch. The Post Office trainer said at the training itself that I should already know
and have had training on how to use the machine.
HELPLINE
12.
13,
14,
15.
I estimate that I contacted the Helpline more than 5 times per week with regard to
problems relating to alleged shortfalls and /or balancing.
The Helpline was relocated overseas and became like a call centre, which made it all
the more difficult to get through to. Many times a week I was required to leave a
message, after being on hold for more than an hour in some instances. My messages
were never responded to.
When I did receive a response, I would often be told to “reboot” my machine. This was
at least on a weekly basis. I was also advised to reverse transactions out and then put
them through the system again, often resulting in a bigger loss than I initially started
with. There was no continuity with the advice, and it was often contradictory.
A different call handler would tell you a different approach and often tell me that the
previous person I had spoken to had told me to do the wrong thing. The advice was
completely conflicting. I was told to leave what I was doing and come back to it in the
morning.
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16. I would rate the so called “Helpline” as the most unhelpful and inefficient system I
have ever encountered. On several occasions I requested that someone from Post
Office Ltd visit my branch, as I was very unhappy with the way my Horizon system was
performing. I was told it wasn’t possible.
17. Also, many times per month my Horizon system went "down", resulting in my inability
to serve customers and earn a living.
18. I would often ask the Helpline if there was something wrong with my system and if
other people were having the same problems as me. The Helpline would say that if
my system is showing a shortage, then as I was inputting the information incorrectly;
anything that was wrong was down to me. They said that a “computer cannot make
errors” and that it was down to human error, and they had not received any other
complaints. I knew this to be false, as I used to call another subpostmaster in Oldham
who was often experiencing the same problems with the Horizon system.
19. {remember a specific instance where I entered a rent payment in the system as £840,
instead of £84. The Helpline advised that I kept declaring the difference of £756 asa
shortage until balance day when the discrepancy would be corrected. However, when
balance day came there was no such correction, and I was told even if the shortfall
was down to human error, it was my mistake so I had to make good the shortfall.
SHORTFALLS
20, In this section, I set out in very brief detail my experience of shortfalls arising from
deficiencies in the Horizon IT System, and Post Office Limited’s actions as a result. This
is only a brief introduction to those matters, in order to provide necessary context for
the explanation of the human impact which follows.
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21.
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24.
I would estimate that throughout my position in the branch, I paid (or Post Office
deducted) in excess of £5000.
Smaller sums of £30, £40 and £50 were appearing on a weekly basis. There were too
many shortages to recount every single occurrence. I repaid the Post Office these
amounts myself with my own cash or paid by cheque on a weekly basis.
However, the Post Office did say if the auditors came and there is a cheque in the draw
that they will assume that I was never going to cash it. Sometimes I would not have
the cash to pay so I would settle centrally, and the money would be deducted from
my salary at source. I balanced so that I could go into the next trading period.
If larger amounts of between £50 and £100 appeared, which they often did, I would
take money from my private sales (my retail business), to make good these shortfalls.
I would call the Helpline and report it. Towards the end of my role, I stopped reporting
it, as no one was interested.
AUDIT AND INVESTIGATION
25,
26.
27.
The first audit I remember was a month or so after my appointment as
subpostmistress.
Two auditors, Marina Grinrod and another person, attended my branch. They were in
the branch for approximately two hours. I was told in advance how and when there
was going to be a visit by one of the audit team, so I knew to expect it.
It happened on a Thursday morning the auditors checked the stamps and cash
machine, they didn’t even count my cash delivery from my day before, so it was not a
thorough audit. This audit didn’t reveal any problems and I never had another audit.
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28. I have seen no evidence of any adequate investigation. I requested audits of my
branch but they were not forthcoming.
RESIGNATION
29. I was not suspended by the Post Office. The Post Office made it very clear that
Network Transformation was the only option open to me, despite the fact I would lose
money on closing my business. ‘Network Transformation’ was a term they were using
whereby they would try to persuade you to turn the retail side of the business into a
Spar Supermarket, for instance. The Post Office demands for these were unrealistic,
they would want the shop open from 6 am to 10pm, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
30. A Post Office employee turned up just 6 months after I took over, to tell me that my
post office was earmarked to be moved to the nearby Spar.
31. At one stage, if things had been running smoothly, I would perhaps have considered
this but, as things stood, I used this as an excuse to leave.
32. I made the decision to resign.
CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
33. The Post Office did not pursue any civil or criminal proceedings against me for the
recovery of the alleged shortfalls as I always made good the deficit.
34, I was led to believe that I was liable for the shortfalls as it was my mistake, my error.
HUMAN IMPACT
35. Financially, I lost value in the business. I paid £37,000 for the premises and a further
£2,500 for the stock. I also paid for the renovations as this was a condition of the
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appointment, which included new Post Office signage. Following Network
Transformation, I received “compensation” which only covered my lease.
The training and support I received whilst running a post office was non-existent. I
entered into a 10-year lease of which I only completed 3 and a half years of due to
being forced out by Network Transformation.
1 estimate in total I lost approximately £10,000.
I was a party to the group litigation against Post Office Ltd, as such I am excluded from
the Historic Shortfall Scheme.
{ left a well-paid job working in a Crown Post office on the understanding I would be
able to make a living owning and running my own sub post office.
I was financially struggling most weeks and months when it came to the office balance.
All shortfalls had to be made good in order to roll over the balance to the next
accounting period. There were often big financial discrepancies that had to be made
good and I would do this without knowing or understanding why this was continuously
wrong.
My family suffered also as a direct result. I had a young child at the time and as well
as trying to run a business at a loss (with no help or explanation as to why it was
running at a loss). I was constantly using the overdraft in my business account.
My daughter was around 5 years old at the time. Prior to this, I was a busy, working
mum who was doing well balancing every aspect of her life.
I went from feeling on top of everything, happy, relaxed and content to being
constantly on edge, constantly short of cash and constantly irritable. This in turn was
negatively impacting on my daughter.
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1 had zero quality of life as every waking minute was spent at work, trying to find out
what was going wrong. I began to neglect everything. This was on my mind every
second of the day.
No one, unless they worked as a subpostmaster/mistress during this period can really
understand how unbelievably stressful this was and to be continuously told it was your
fault was physically and mentally draining.
I went to my doctor to discuss my health issues, due to the pressure I was under from
Post Office Ltd. I broke down in front of the doctor. I didn’t have any history of mental
health issues, but I was extremely stressed and couldn’t sleep.
I begged my doctor to prescribe anti depressions to help me through. I was advised to
seek counselling.
I had my future planned out. I intended to run the business for the 7 years remaining
on the lease and ultimately remain in my position as subpostmistress until retirement.
I had worked for Post Office for such a long time that I wished to remain loyal to them.
1 also had the constant feeling that I was letting my customers down.
I felt I had no other option but to resign for the sake of my sanity. I was depressed and
sinking even deeper.
It took me several years to begin to build myself up again. I managed to find part time
work and then full-time employment. However, my dreams of running my own
business were shattered.
I was made to question my abilities, my actions. I was left feeling isolated and risked
being branded a criminal.
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53. I would like more than anything some recognition from Post Office Ltd for what they
put me through and an apology.
CONCLUSION
54. I now know that what happened to me happened to hundreds, if not thousands of
others, who were only wanting to make a living and benefit the local community. What
the Post Office did was shameful, and they need to be held to account.
STATEMENT OF TRUTH
I believe the contents of this statement to be true.
Signed...
Moira Hegarty
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