Witness Name: Ms Wendy Martin
Statement No: WITNO238_01
Exhibits: None
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THE POST OFFICE HORIZON INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF MS WENDY MARTIN
1, MS WENDY MARTIN WILL SAY as follows:
INTRODUCTION
1. 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. land my partner have a 12 year old daughter and live in North Yorkshire. I have two
adult children from my previous relationship.
3. After school I went to business training college. After this I worked in accounts and
credit control for a number of large companies and a building society. I later worked
with the Environment Agency.
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! also previously worked as an assistant in a post office at Liphook in Hampshire in
1999. I worked there for about two years, but had to return to Yorkshire as my father
in law was very unwell with lung cancer.
1 then worked in the main post office in York. I worked there for about 18 months, but
I very much wanted to work in a smaller village post office, as I enjoyed the community
feeling of that work.
At the same time as I was working in the main post office, I also assisted a
subpostmaster who had a post office in York; he was struggling and needed help.
On my days off 1 would work as an assistant with Mr Alistair Murray in the Crichton
Avenue post office (the post office of which I later became subpostmaster).
All in all, I worked as an assistant in a number of post offices for approximately 16
years before becoming a subpostmaster.
I was employed as an assistant by the then subpostmaster, Mr Alistair Murray, at the
Crichton Avenue post office. I am aware that Mr Murray is also a core participant in
this Inquiry.
I knew that Mr Murray had decided that he no longer wished to be a subpostmaster
and was looking to sell his business. Mr Murray had a buyer, but the Post Office would
not approve the sale.
I discussed the matter with my partner. We had just bought our council house. Given
my experience we thought it was a good fit and that it would be a secure career.
When the sale was not approved by Post Office, I approached Mr Murray and advised
him that I was interested in taking on the post office. Mr Murray agree to sell the post
office to me.
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I became a Subpostmistress of Crichton Avenue Post Office, 1 intake Avenue, Clifton,
York YO30 6HB on 9 February 2015. I remained in post until 23 December 2016.
I operated a retail business from the premises selling toys, greeting cards and
stationery. The shop was very small and it was not viable without the post office.
As part of my appointment, Post Office Ltd required me to upgrade my post office to
be compliant with disability legislation; including the installation of ramps. The Post
Office also insisted on a large number of other changes in the post office to make it
far more open plan to allow for wheel chair access.
The Post Office also installed all of the networking equipment for their Horizon
System, safe, alarm system, pay point machines etc.
This refurbishment was a requirement of the Post Office. The cost of this
refurbishment was very significant, well over £15,000.
I later discovered, during the refurbishment, that the Post Office equipment utilising
the same phone line caused serious problems with the Horizon System and other
equipment, such as Pay Point and the safe. I also later discovered that this was a
problem that was known of in other post offices. At the time I did not know that a
single telephone line could lead to serious problems with the Horizon System.
TRAINING AND SUPPORT
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Whilst I cannot remember precisely when it was, shortly after I started my first post
off role (at Liphook in Hampshire) in 1999 we had a 3 day training course on how to
navigate the system.
Horizon was a brand new system at this time, and the Liphook office was one of the
trial offices in which it was used. The training was very basic, showing you how to do
basic transactions. The rest of it you had to learn as you went along.
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When I worked at the main post office in York I was trained on new Post Office
products, but not on how to operate the Horizon System. As this was a larger post
office, there were colleagues you could ask for help.
When I became the subpostmaster at The Crichton Avenue post office a Post Office
trainer came for approximately 2 hours. I received no additional training.
INE AND POST OFFICE FAILURE TO RECTIFY IDENTIFIED PROBLEMS
HELPLII
—ee SSeS AIRE TO RECTIFY IDENTIFIED PROBLEMS
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After taking over the Clifton post office the Horizon System caused many problems.
However, it is important to highlight that the Post Office and its contractors installed
the phone line, internet router and all other systems in the post office.
I discovered that as my post office had a single telephone line (installed by Post Office),
this caused serious problems with the Horizon system and other Post Office
equipment.
The Horizon System (with incoming and outgoing transmissions from the Post Office)
was competing with the Post Office Gas and Electric Pay Point Machine, also every
time the safe was opened it would transmit; again competing with the other
transmissions. Also, the post office’s alarm system would send signals every time
someone was moving around the shop. Similarly, using the telephone also competed
with the all these other functions.
! would be regularly be called out at night because the alarm was going off, as the
alarm system was competing with the Horizon system (which was sending data at
night) and pay point system.
Similarly the post office’s safe was connected to the system and was constantly going
wrong. It would report that it was empty, or that sums of money were missing; even
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though the money was there. This meant that I had to constantly take the money out
of the safe and then reload the safe.
However, this would happen again and again, due to failures in connectivity or
interference between the various Post Office Systems. I became so frightened that I
would be blamed for large sums of money going missing I used to video myself bagging
up cash to send to the Post Office.
As a result the internet was constantly dropping, causing our Horizon computer to
drop out constantly.
I was also receiving calls from many clients who had been making utility payments via
the Horizon System at my post office, and these payments were being lost by the
Horizon System.
My customers would call me, every day, about utility payments that had gone missing.
I would then have to find the reference for their payment, so that they could contact
the Post Office to have the utility payment made.
Obviously this damaged my relationship with my customers, as they believed that I
was doing something wrong, i.e. keeping their money and pretending to make the
payment. As such, this led to conflict with clients.
However, the cause was the Post Office installed phone line/internet system, which
dramatically affected the Horizon System, as it kept dropping all the time.
As I say, I strongly suspected that this was the cause of the discrepancies and
shortfalls, and I later, discovered that this was the cause of the constant
discrepancies/shortfalls in the system.
This was a basic flaw in the system that I am sure the Post Office must have known of
or should have known of, as there were hundreds of rural post office across the
country who must have been experiencing this problem. Indeed, I spoke to other
subpostmasters who had the same problem.
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later raised this problem directly with national Post Office Directors Kevin Gililand
and Angela van den Bogerd; including with her directly when she came to my post
office as a result of my complaints in the press and to my MP.
Thus, when I phoned the Helpline seeking assistance, the phone line would drop out.
When I would get through the Helpline would say that I would have to reset my
internet router. This meant closing the shop. Then the internet would drop again and
I would have to call the Helpline again, who would again tell me to reset the internet
router. This happened many times
I begged for the Helpline to send an engineer. However, they only sent a BT engineer,
not a Post Office engineer. I knew that this was not a telephone line issue, but a Post
Office issue with their own installations.
I sought help from the helpline so many times, sometimes repeatedly on a daily basis
begging for them to send somebody out to fix the internet connectivity issue.
Things got so bad, and I was receiving no help from the Helpline, that I reached out to
Mr Mark Baker of the Communication Workers Union. I was not a member of his
union, but he still gave me a lot of help.
I was not a part of the National Federation of Subpostmasters, as I did not trust them.
I and other subpostmasters saw the National Federation as being untrustworthy and
on the side of the Post Office.
Mr Baker of the Communication Workers Union was of enormous help. I spoke to him
very often, almost every night. He did all he could to help and support me.
Mr Baker believed that there was clearly a problem with the Post Office Horizon
System and the conflicts between the various Post Office terminals in my post office.
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He helped me as much as he could, even though i was not yet a member; albeit I
became a member later.
Mr Baker advised me that there was no point in contacting Paula Vennells (CEO of the
Post Office), as he said that she would not assist. However, he advised to contact a
senior Post Office Director called Keven Gilliland.
I did contact Mr Kevin Gilliland (Chief Executive Post Office Retail). He suggested that
I contact with a senior Post Office director called Angela van den Bogerd.
The situation became so severe that I decided to close my post office and I went to
the local newspapers and said that I would not be reopening the post office until the
Post Office came to fix the connection issues that are causing serious issues with the
Horizon System. I also took the matter up with my MP and local councillor, both of
whom took these matters up with the Post Office
As a result of my closing my post office, the press articles, and the intervention of my
MP, Ms Van Den Bogerd came to my small post office.
1 showed her exactly what the problems were. I told her that the problems were
causing serious discrepancies. I told her that I had worked on the Horizon System for
years, but the system was being seriously affected by the way in which the Post Office
has installed their phone line/internet.and systems.
Ms Van Den Bogerd tried to play down and dismiss my concerns. She referred to a
recent BBC Panorama documentary that had been on about problems with the Post
Office, and said it was nowhere near as bad as had been reported. However, I would
not be put off. I told her exactly what the problem was and asked her to take action
to resolve it.
However, nothing was done, except to continue to send BT engineers regarding the
phone line. However, this had never been the problem.
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54. — The problem lay within the post office and the conflict between Post Office’s various
systems in the post office that were conflicting and causing the Horizon System to
drop and to lose transactions. BT could not fix this, only Post Office could.
SHORTFALLS
55. __ 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.
56. I would estimate that throughout my position in the branch, I paid (or Post Office
deducted) in excess of £8,000.
57. Just some of the shortfalls included the following:
58. In August 2015 I experienced a shortfall of £171.45. This was stopped out of my
remuneration by the Post Office on 30 September 2015.
59. In April 2015 I experienced a shortfall of £249.10. This was stopped out of my
remuneration by the Post Office on 29 May 2015.
60. In June 2005 I experienced a shortfall of £196.00. I paid this shortfall by debit card in
2015.
61. ON 27 November 2005 I experienced a shortfall of £234.58. I paid this shortfall by
cheque dated 27 November 2015. I treated this shortfall as a Post Office loss.
62. On 31 March 2016 I experienced a shortfall of£112.40. I paid this shortfall by cheque
dated 31 March 2016.
63. On 1 August 2016 I experienced a shortfall of £185.00. I paid this shortfall by cheque
dated 1 August 2016.
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There was also approximately £1,000 of cumulative shortfalls during the period
February 2015 to December 2016. I repaid these shortfalls by cash.
On 21 December 2016 I experiences a shortfall of£740.15. I did not repay this shortfall
and did not record it.
Similarly, I experienced a shortfall of £277.07 on 23 November 2016. I did not repay
this shortfall and did not record it.
Again I experienced a shortfall of £853.37 on 24 August 2016. I did not repay this
shortfall.
{ must emphasise that the shortfalls and discrepancies were constant and would
inflate as I attempted to rectify them.
Further, and as I have said, I was also receiving constant calls from customers
complaining that their utility payments had gone missing. Many thought that I was
stealing from them.
My assistants were constantly calling on me during the working day saying, “Wendy,
the safe has gone down”, and “Wendy, my system has gone down”. The problems with
the system were simply constant.
One member of my staff refused to work unless I was present, as she did not want to
be blamed for losses caused by the system.
On one occasion there was a shortfall of approximately £350. I investigated this and
undertook a full balance check, and then the shortfall increased to over £800. During
that day I must have check the balances 40 times, and I could not find the shortfall.
However, just before I closed the post office, I checked again, and the money had
come back — for absolutely no reason.
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! was constantly putting money in to balance the system.
I estimate that in the two years I was operating, I took home approximately £9,000.
However, I paid more than £8,000 to make the system balance.
It would be impossible to give a full account of how many daily problems that I was
having, and the attempt that I took to get the Post Office to acknowledge the problem
and fix it.
The stress was simply appalling. in fact for almost two years, I barely slept.
I could not have a single day off because of the problems. I had to use Sundays (the
only day the post office was closed) to purchase stock for the shop. This meant that I
had no time off at all.
AUDIT AND INVESTIGATION
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Around six months after taking up my position as subpostmistress, the Post Office sent
a trainer for a brief count of cash. Whilst this was not a full audit, the cash was around
£10 out.
After my first closure (caused by problems in Horizon) I demanded an audit before
reopening. The action I took caused Post Office Director, Ms Van Den Bogerd, to come
to my post office. However, despite this not action was taken by Post Office to solve
the problem.
There was an audit after this closure, but Post Office auditors found no discrepancies.
Again, I complained to the auditor about the problems that I was having. In fact at the
start of the audit we checked the balance and it gave one figure, at the end of the
audit it gave another figure (not a large sum). The auditor could not explain this
discrepancy that occurred while he was present and conducting an audit.
it became clear that Post Office would not rectify the underlying problem.
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I was now deeply unwell, I had not been sleeping for almost two years. My blood
pressure was dangerously high, to the extent that my GP warned me that I would have
a stroke.
I decided that if I continued I would die or become very seriously ill.
I therefore took the decision to close the post office. Post Office would not
acknowledge or address the problem. I decided that I had been forced into a situation
where I had to choose between continuing to operate the post office and going
bankrupt or dying, or closing the post office and living. There was no alternative.
Approaching Christmas 2016, I informed Post Office that I would not be reopening in
January 2017 unless they rectified the problems.
I then discovered that Post Office had withheld my salary for December, which would
have been over £5,000 due to the volume of trade in this period.
I therefore told Post Office that if they withheld my salary that I would take the money
that was due to me for my salary from the office funds. The Post Office told me that I
should not do this and that they would take action against me.
I consulted Mark Baker of the Communication Workers Union. As I say, he had been a
constant support to me throughout these problems. He completely sym pathised, and
said that this was like when you take your car to the garage, if you don’t pay the bill,
they can keep your car until you pay. He said, that this was money that was due to me
from the Post Office, and I was entitled to it.
Mr Baker also advised me of the Group Litigation (Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd).
He suggested that I become a claimant. I got assistance from the Communication
Workers Union in contacting the solicitors who were conducting that litigation.
As I say, I therefore took the £5,000 from my post office balance in lieu of my unpaid
salary, which was less than I thought was due, and reported this to the Post Office.
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I therefore closed the post office for good in December 2016.
The Post Office sent me formal demands for some £8,800. I refused to pay. In any
event, by this time I had nothing at this time.
Fortunately, as I was now a claimant in the Group Litigation, the Post Office could not
proceed against me.
When the court case concluded I received some £24,000, which was a fraction of what
I lost and the harm that I had suffered. That money went to pay off a credit card I had
used to pay debts arising from the post office and a load from my father. However, I
was still in massive debt. As things stand, I will probably never be out of debt.
SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION
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I was not suspended but forced to close, because my situation had become impossible.
The Shortfalls kept arising, and ! had told everyone in the Post Office, right up to the
Directors of Post Office Ltd what was the cause of the problems. However, the Post
Office refused to fix the problem they had caused, but simply continued to demand
that I make good shortfalls that had been caused by their faulty equipment.
I was terrified that a very large shortfall would arise, which I would be liable for, and
which would make me bankrupt, or that the Post Office would prosecute me over.
I had got so frightened that I used to video tape myself preparing bags of money to go
back to the post office to protect myself, as I was terrified that the system would
report massive losses. I could not live like this.
The stress had damaged my health, which was now so bad as to be life threatening.
For my health, and to protect myself from bankruptcy and prosecution, I considered
that I had no choice other than to close my post office.
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100.
By email dated 19 December 2016 (and a subsequent telephone conversation) I
confirmed to Post Office that I would be closing my branch at 4.30pm on 23 December
2016, and I would not be opening it again due to the problems I had been experiencing
with Horizon and Post Office’s failure to resolve the problem that I had repeatedly
pointed out to Post Office and its national Directors.
CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
101.° Post Office did not pursue civil or criminal proceedings against me for the recovery of
the alleged shortfalls. However, I had been repeatedly threatened by the Post Office
and I feared criminal prosecution or civil action.
102. I am certain that it is only because I became a Claimant in the Group Litigation that
the Post Office did not take action against me.
NATURE OF CLAIMS FOR LOSS
103, The Post Office made it clear to me that I had no alternative but to pay the shortfalls.
As a result, I paid over £8,000 to make up for shortfalls and discrepancies either from
my own funds (or from deductions in my remuneration).
104. {also lost £145,000, which was the value of the business that I lost due to the enforced
closure of the post office.
105. Tobe clear at this time I was simply too ill to keep it going and to try to sell it as a going
concern. In any event, as I there had been many news articles about the problems I
was suffering in my post office, no buyer would have come forward.
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Furthermore, i could not sell the post office without the Post Office’s permission and
they would not have let me sell it unless I paid them the money I had retained for the
withholding of my salary.
As a result of having to close my post office 1 was unable to make bank loans and
personal commitments, as I had no income. As such, I still have outstanding business
loans of circa £14,084.12. I have been paying this off for the last 5 years.
My credit rating was destroyed, which has made everything so much more expensive.
I lost the cost of the refurbishment which the Post Office insisted of some £15,226. I
lost the stock value £4,800.
I would have worked in the branch for a further 20 years, during which time I would
have expected to earn approximately £734,400 from the branch and £187,020 from
the retail business.
I was unemployed for 6 months following the enforced closure of my post office, and
now work 24 hours per week at minimum wage. It is unlikely I will be able to find
further work. If I work until retirement. With luck, I will earn approximately £177,840.
I therefore estimate my total loss of earnings post termination to be in the region of
£743,580
What is difficult to put a price or value on is the damage to my health, self-belief and
reputation within the community. The rumours are saying that I and my staff were
stealing. I do not know how much damage has been done yet.
HUMAN IMPACT
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As I have said, I suffered frequent shortages, caused by failures in Post Office’s
equipment and in the Horizon system.
I was certain that that these were caused by faults caused by Post Office’s installation
in my post office, which caused Post Office Equipment to constantly drop out causing
shortfalls and discrepancies
I had reported these problems to the highest levels of the Post Office (including Kevin
Gililand and Angela van den Bogerd) and pleaded for help. No help was provided.
I did not participate in the mediation scheme. However, I was a party to the group
litigation against Post Office Limited, and as such I am excluded from the Post Office
Historic Shortfall scheme.
The only person who supported me through all of this was Mark Baker of the
Communication Workers Union. He was always there for me, and did all that he could
to help.
The flaws in Horizon meant that I barely slept for the two years I was operating the post
office. I was worried all the time, I was up late trying to get the system to function and
balance and worrying about the loss of customer transactions that went missing on the
Horizon System.
As a result of the constant discrepancies, I became incredibly ill.
My organs were suffering, I was constantly ill. My kidneys, liver, and heart were
suffering.
lt emphasise that I do not drink or smoke. However, the stress caused me so much stress,
and this combined with my inability to sleep due to stress, caused problems with my
organs. I also developed life threatening blood pressure. My doctor warned me I was
going to have a stroke.
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I closed down as a person and suffered very badly with depression. I had a total mental
breakdown, and I was unable to function properly for several years after closing the
post office.
My reputation also suffered, as the problems in the system, making customers utility
bill payments disappear, caused rumours about me stealing from the post office. This
made my depression worsen.
I distanced myself completely from family and friends, I never did anything. I was too ill
to function. My family suffered, and my partner and I moved into separate rooms; our
family life fell apart. We still sleep in separate rooms to this day. The strain caused by
the post office were too much for us.
The house became too much. I had always taken enormous pride in my home, but our
once show home grew dirty, because I could no longer bring myself to keep my home
clean and tidy. I lost all my pride in myself and my home. My partner struggled with the
shell that I had become, and we grew very distant. This had an effect on our young
daughter. Her once lovely home life was no longer the same, and her mother was a
broken person.
We were so poor that when our heating broke down we could not afford to fix it, so we
had no heating for 8 months.
My parents had been so proud of me that I was the local subpostmaster. Now I drive
for Euro Car Parks part time.
It is now almost exactly 5 years since I was forced to close the doors of my post office.
Those were dark years that almost destroyed me and my family.
Although I am improving slowly, as a result of counselling and efforts to live healthily, I
am still ill. My liver does not function as it should, my kidneys are still bad, and my blood
pressure is still threatening my life.
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I try to live a healthy life but the stress still causes me problems. I suffer constant and
extreme exhaustion, I try to help in the house now, but some days I barely function.
The Post Office broke my life. If nothing changes I will be in debt until 2052. The meagre
compensation I received from the Group Litigation barely dented my debts and business
loan.
CONCLUSION
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I told the Post Office, right up to national director level, exactly what the problem was
that was causing the shortfalls and the many other problems caused by the Post Office’s
equipment. Post Office knew what the problem was, but did nothing, apart from to
demand that I make good shortfalls.
I should have had a good lifestyle, working hard as a subpostmaster, serving my
community and being paid for my work and earning profits from my retail business.
Instead, I lost everything, and I will be in debt until 2052 paying back the losses from
the post office.
I need to get back what I lost and what was taken from. By this I mean, my direct
financial losses, and lost future earnings. However, I also mean the damage to my health
and reputation.
I would also like to see the Post Office held to account. I would like to see Angela van
den Bogerd give evidence to this Inquiry and tell the Chair of the Inquiry about her visit
to my little post office, when I showed her the cause of the problems. I would like her
to explain why she did nothing.
lam an ordinary, hard working woman. I have been broken by the post office. I deserve
help in putting my life back together.
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STATEMENT OF TRUTH
I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.
Wendy Martin
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