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Witness Name: MS Denise Latreille
Statement No: WITNO251_01
Exhibits: None
Dated: 8 January 2022
THE POST OFFICE HORIZON IT INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF MS DENISE LATREILLE
I, MS DENISE LATREILLIE WILL STATE 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. I grew up in London. I was born in Fulham and eventually moved with my parents to
Ruislip where I attended college.
3. I had a variety of jobs after leaving school, and then I trained as an airline stewardess,
and worked for various airlines for many years.
4, I then moved to Florida where I owned an ice cream bakery store, which I ran for five
years before deciding to move back to England.
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5. At the age of 50, I went to Thames Valley University to study psychology and gained
an BSc (Hon) Psychology 2:1 First Division Degree and I started a placement with the
Woking Community Mental Health Team (CMHT).
6. I was accepted for a place at Holloway University to study for a Master’s Degree but
having just met my partner, Gerald Shadbolt, we decided to buy a house together in
Egham Surrey and I continued to work in the CMHT.
7. Due to the proposed extension of Heathrow Airport and all the associated roadworks
we decided to move down to Somerset in search of a quieter life and now live in a
very small rural village right in the middle of Exmoor National Park and I currently work
as a Psychological Therapist! _ _ _
BACKGROUND PRIOR TO APPOINTMENT AS SPM
8. Prior to taking on the Post Office, I was doing a degree in Psychology and working as
an accommodation officer in the community mental health team.
9. My partner, Gerald, started his working life as a Motor Mechanic and worked his way
up to being an After Sales Manager at various franchise dealerships.
10. Before our move down to Somerset he was the Operations Manager for a large
Mechanical Breakdown Insurance Company owned by Ford Motor Company and
oversaw the claims department with a team of 8 engineers and a call centre team of
30 plus colleagues.
11. When we decided to take over the Post Office we both left our careers and moved to
a new area in the South West of England.
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With both of us having fairly intense and pressurised jobs we decided to move down to
Somerset from London in search of an easier and quieter life, with the long term
intention of paying off the business loan early and retiring.
Initially, we were not looking for a business as we were actually just looking to buy a
house but then we came across the Exford Post Office and Stores and decided to buy it.
We bought the Exford Post Office and Stores in February 2007 in a small rural village
right in the middle of Exmoor National Park and planned to build up the business to give
us a good income and hopefully a happy retirement.
We paid £350,000.00 for the branch and took out a business loan for £175,000.00 to
partially fund the purchase and to carry out the renovations on the property, so in total
we invested £425,000.00.
Although both my partner, Gerald Shadbolt, and myself attended the same Post Office
training course, I was the nominated Subpostmistress, as our intention was that I would
run the Post Office whilst he would concentrate on running the retail business. This side
of the business consisted of a mix of confectionary, stationary, local produce, greetings
cards, gifts, alcohol, etc. and was also a National Park Information Centre.
We had a Royal Mail sorting office on site which was used by four postmen and
necessitated us opening this six days a week at 7.00am, for this we had an additional
monthly salary.
I was a Subpostmistress of Exford Post Office, Park Street, Exford, Somerset TA24 7PP
from 7 February 2007 to 24 March 2015. My partner and I lived in the linked residential
premises; it was our home.
Gerald and I worked together in the business and we were at all times business partners,
and co-owned the premises. As such were jointly responsible for shortfalls paid to the
Post Office.
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TRAINING AND SUPPORT
20. My partner and I received 10 days of classroom-based training at Teignmouth Main
Post Office. We received the training about two weeks before taking over the office.
The training course consisted of about two days of instruction on operating the
Horizon system and the rest of the time was spent on training us to sell all Post Office
related products like Life Insurance, Holiday Insurance, Mortgages, Loans, etc. with
role-playing a major part.
pai We had a minimal training session on how to do the monthly rollover but at no time
were we told or shown how to deal with any issues or operating problems.
22. Some of the training did not prevent errors occurring as the training was based on the
premise that the support system worked. For example, we were shown the recovery
process for transactions that are interrupted during a power cut but in reality, the
system would fail to recover these correctly.
23. You could check the transaction report but this was not an accurate indicator as to
whether Horizon had processed the transaction or not. This would only appear much
later in the branch accounts by which time you could not easily trace it to the power
cut.
24. We had 5 days of in branch training after running the Post Office for three weeks. This
included assistance with our first balancing period. Even after this we found this very
difficult and we had small discrepancies every month, which we just settled because
we thought that we had to under the contract.
25. We called the Helpline and asked for additional training multiple times but we were
told that there was no more training available.
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26. In the first month, the Wednesday cash-ups were fairly smooth and you always had
someone at the end of the phone on a Wednesday until 9.00 p.m. to offer help if there
were small discrepancies, which were expected.
27. The day before our first monthly rollover, in February 2007, we had a trainer turn up
and he spent two days with us and helped us to carry out the first rollover. We learned
more from him in the first hour than we did in the whole of the two-week training
course, which showed just how abysmal the Post Office training actually was.
28. After this, we carried on as normal, and if at the end of the month we were over we
would put this money in the safe as the following month would probably correct itself,
and then we had the money to put back into balance.
29. At one time we even had £1,000.00 in the safe for two or three months waiting for a
correction that was needed.
HELPLINE
30. We initially contacted the Helpline regularly to report the first shortfalls that we got,
but we found after a short period that the advice it gave was not reliable. You might
follow the procedure given to reverse a transaction that had caused a shortfall only to
find that the next day the shortfall had doubled.
31. After that we would usually just pay the shortfalls if they were under around £200.00.
However, when the shortfalls started to become larger and more regular we began
contacting the Helpline more and more frequently, usually 2-3 times per week.
32. It was always a nightmare trying to get through to the Helpline, and if the problem
was serious or very involved, it would normally be a case of closing the branch to allow
for the time needed to make the call.
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33. In the later years the Helpline advisers would only talk to you if the problem related
to a transaction where the customer was waiting in front of you for assistance,
otherwise they said they could call you back within 24 hours.
34. Sometimes you would also need to contact the Helpline when it had already closed.
The most pressing calls were those about balances, which had to be made after the
Post Office had closed and by which time the Helpline was no longer available.
35. On several occasions we asked the Helpline to send an auditor to the branch to
investigate the problems we had. It took around 12 months for the Post Office to send
somebody.
36. The auditor spent a day at the branch and said that he did not find any problems in
the way that we were processing transactions. After a while we would use the
Helpline in order to obtain a reference number for a problem that we experienced,
but would usually rely on other sub postmasters to help us fix problems, as the
Helpline was typically unavailable.
SHORTFALLS
37. 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.
38. I would estimate that throughout my position in the branch, my partner and I paid or
the Post Office deducted in excess of £12,095.19.
39. Between February 2007 and March 2015, shortfalls arose amounting to £3,000.00.
These were repaid to the Post Office through automatic deductions from my salary that
I had no say over.
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From the very beginning we had small discrepancies, which were usually shortfalls.
These were typically £20-£50 per month, which we made good in cash, although we
could go for several months without receiving any. To begin with we just paid these
because we thought that we had to under the contract and we were not aware of any
procedure for challenging them.
From around November 2009 we began to suffer larger discrepancies, which we had
more contact with the Helpline about.
We still continued to make smaller payments in cash. Over the whole period, I estimate
that we paid around £3,000.00 by way of deductions from my salary. We always made
these payments at the end of balances and did not ever inflate any Horizon figures.
On 18 November 2009 a shortfall arose amounting to £1,781.62. Again, I repaid the Post
Office through deductions to my salary and it was repaid by 27 June 2010.
There had been an accumulation of shortfalls in the branch starting in 2010. We did not
know what had caused these but the Post Office allowed us to place these in the
suspense account.
We asked the Post Office for several months to send an auditor to the branch to
investigate the cause of these problems.
The branch was audited on 18 November 2009 and at that time there was a loss of
£1,781.62 in the suspense account. The auditors could not explain what the problem
was, but said that they would make a report to the Post Office.
A further two auditors attended the branch and spent two days there and again said
there didn’t seem to be anything wrong, but that they will write up a report. We have
never seen any reports in relation to the audits conducted.
Several months later, we received a letter stating that I had to make good this loss and
that it would be deducted from my salary from March 2010. Four deductions were
made of around £475, and it was fully paid by 27 June 2010.
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On 16 December 2009, a shortfall arose amounting to £279.97. I repaid the Post Office
by way of deductions to my salary, which were completed on 27 June 2010. We
received a transaction correction for the above amount after we remitted some old
Turkish notes back to the Post Office. They later claimed that they had not received
these and sought to recovery the value from us.
On 25 June 2010 a shortfall arose amounting to £1,400.00. I repaid the Post Office from
deductions to my salary and this was repaid by 23 May 2011.
The Post Office later argued that these transaction corrections related to duplicated
figures entered into Horizon under sums I had added to the ATM, of £420 and £980 on
19 April and 24 May 2010 respectively.
The Post Office alleged that these had resulted in surpluses being generated totalling
£1,400.00 and that the transaction correction was to correct this. This was not the case.
We did not receive any surplus in respect of these transactions so the transaction
correction that we received related to cash that had not existed in the branch. It was
agreed that from 26 October 2010 I had to make monthly payments from my salary of
around £250.00. This was fully paid by 23 May 2011.
On 15 December 2010 an alleged shortfall arose amounting to £919.20. I repaid the
Post Office from deductions to my salary and this was repaid by 23 May 2011. This was
a loss identified at the end of a trading period. This loss occurred while I was making
monthly payments in respect another shortfall. This was added to the total that I was
expected to repay to the Post Office and was fully repaid by 23 May 2011.
On 19 May 2011 an alleged shortfall arose amounting to £1,398.63. I repaid the Post
Office in two lump sums of £1,358.32 on 21 May 2011 and £40.31 on 3 June 2011. T
his was a loss caused after the Post Office alleged that we had not remitted enough
cheques back to it, compared to what was recorded on Horizon as remitted. This was
not caused by any error that we made, and I believe was the Post Office’s fault.
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On 27 October 2010, an alleged shortfall arose amounting to £1,500.00. I repaid the
Post Office from deductions to my salary and this was repaid by 23 November 2011.
This was a loss caused after the Post Office alleged that we had not remitted enough
cheques back to it compared to what was recorded on Horizon as remitted. This was
not caused by any error that we made and I believe was the Post Office’s fault. I agreed
to pay this in monthly deductions from my salary of £250.00 that started on 29 June
2011 and ended on 23 November 2011.
On 16 June 2011 an alleged shortfall arose amounting to £1,152.31. I repaid the Post
Office from deductions to my salary and this was repaid by 28 March 2012. This was a
loss identified at the end of a trading period. This was deducted from my salary at
around £288.08 per month starting from 20 December 2011 and ending on 28 March
2012.
On 12 April 2012 an alleged shortfall arose amounting to £663.46. I repaid the Post
Office from deductions to my salary and this was repaid by 25 July 2012. This was a loss
identified at the end of a trading period. This was deducted from my salary at £331.73
per month that started on 27 June 2012 and ended on 25 July 2012.
On one occasion, a customer paid a cheque into the Post Office in respect of her Council
Tax. She then came into the branch to say that she had been contacted by the Post
Office to say that her payment had not gone through.
She contacted the Council who agreed that it had been received through the Post Office.
Only the Post Office maintained that the cheque had not been received.
We ended up making good an alleged loss that we, the customer, and the Council
agreed did not exist and only the Post Office maintained existed, despite being the
vehicle by which the Council had received it.
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AUDIT AND INVESTIGATION
64, There were three audits that took place, one on 11 November 2009, another on
02 November 2010 and a final one on 10 July 2012.
65. In early 2009, we asked for an audit to be carried out at the branch to help us to
understand why there were regular shortfalls at the branch and to explain the amount
which at that time was accumulating in the suspense account. The audit of
11 November 2009 was a standard audit that did not address these issues. It took
until 02 November 2010 for an auditor to arrive at the branch to investigate our
complaints.
66. Brian Ware, the auditor, checked through Horizon and at the end said that he could
not understand what we were doing wrong. He said that there was nothing wrong
with the way that we were processing transactions.
67. After this audit and what the auditor has said, I thought that the shortfall would be
written off, but several months later we were told that it would be deducted from the
Post Office Salary anyway. The same thing happened again at the next audit.
68. Even though we had asked several times for further training, the auditors did not really
engage with us or show us how to operate Horizon in any other way.
69. In addition, I was the subject of a disciplinary interview with Gary Adderley on
24 November 2010 in which he speculated that my partner, Gerald Shadbolt had been
taking money out of the account. This made no sense because we have both been
jointly responsible for the losses.
70. I understand that I was only interviewed because we were regularly complaining
about the problems affecting the branch. We have not seen any documents showing
the results of any internal investigations.
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SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION
7A. I was under so much stress that I could not bear to continue working in the Post Office.
I was suffering from severe stress and nervous anxiety and could not continue working
in the Post Office. From around 2012 I no longer worked at the Post Office and
obtained employment elsewhere.
72. My partner, Gerald, took over operating the branch in addition to running the shop,
however he too eventually became unwell due to the stress of the constant shortfalls
occurring and the pressure of running everything single-handed, as we could not
afford to employ any staff.
73. I was not suspended by the Post Office. When we heard about the Network
transformation scheme, we saw this as our opportunity to get away from the Post
Office and so we closed our Post Office under the Network Transformation Scheme.
74, Prior to this we had been trying to sell the property for several years as the Post Office
was not very profitable, largely because of the regular shortfalls that we experienced.
75. We went through four estate agents in our efforts to sell the business but we had no
luck with any of them.
76. The Post Office insists that the Subpostmaster must resign from their position before
they will allow the property to be advertised on it’s website for sale or to be marketed
independently. I therefore resigned twice in 2011 and then I withdrew my resignation
when the property remained unsold.
77. Prospective purchasers were also put off by the Post Office’s insistence that they make
an offer for the property before interviewing for the position and presenting a
business plan to the Post Office.
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78. Several people viewed the branch and were very interested in purchasing it until they
realised that it would be 2-3 months before the Post Office could interview them and
accept them. They lost interest immediately after this.
79. From 2013 onwards, there was a lot of publicity about there being Horizon errors and
this made it seem impossible to sell the branch because prospective purchasers knew
that there were problems with it.
80. On closure, we decided to convert the Post Office into residential accommodation as
we saw this as the best means of eventually recovering some of the lost value.
81. I hold the Post Office totally responsible for the loss of our investment as it has left us
with a large outstanding business loan that we expected to have been redeemed by
now.
CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
82. The Post Office did not pursue civil or criminal proceedings against me for the recovery
of the alleged shortfalls, although the threat was always there and I was subjected to
a disciplinary meeting.
MEDIATION SCHEME
83. We were included in the Mediation scheme and when we attended the Mediation
meeting we were confronted by three Post Office employees who took the same
intransigent attitude that the losses were totally our fault. This being despite the fact
the Post Office auditors could find no problems with our accounting and the continual
problems we encountered. In the opinion of the Post Office representatives the Horizon
System was infallible and could not be the problem.
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84. The Post Office representatives were very hostile during the mediation, and at the
lunchtime break, we told the Chairman and our appointed Mediator, Mr Graham Cade,
that there was no point in us continuing as they were obviously not going to help us.
85. It was decided that the chairman and mediator would meet them alone whilst we
waited in another room. Eventually we were told the Post Office had agreed to give us
a full and final settlement of, I believe, £2,500.00 subject to us signing a non-disclosure
agreement.
86. Our Mediator told us we had presented a very good case and that this was the first case
he had been involved with that had reached any settlement.
87. However, this settlement was not a fraction of the losses we have suffered and the harm
that the post office put us through.
HUMAN IMPACT
88. I suffered serious problems with the Horizon system including alleged shortfalls. I was
wrongly accused for alleged shortfalls, which amounted to in excess of £12,000.00. The
Post Office refused to properly help me and treated me like a criminal as soon as alleged
shortages started to occur.
89. I was privy to mediation in 2013 and received £2,500 in compensation, as mentioned
above. I was also party to the group litigation against Post Office Ltd, and as a result I
am excluded from the Historic Shortfall Scheme.
90. When we started to find we had large discrepancies we would sit until late into the
evening going over the accounts, this became more and more frequent and more
stressful. It did not help that the Post Office had decided that the 9.00 p.m. helpline
would be closed.
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When the discrepancies started to be in the hundreds and then thousands, we would
phone them the Post Office the next day and we were told by the Post Office to “settle
to Central” on the Horizon, which we did and we were told the discrepancies would be
investigated.
Unfortunately, this was never done and we would find that they would then take it from
our salary and at times ask if we wanted to pay the discrepancy monthly.
Every time we could not carry out the “rollover” we could not open the Post Office in
the morning until the problem had been resolved, as we were unable to carry out any
Horizon transactions and this could cause obvious problems for us with our customers
and meant that we were losing out on business.
We asked time and time again over the months for Auditors to come out and investigate
why we were getting minus figures on Horizon but got no help. Then one day a lady
arrived unannounced to do an audit, I greeted her and said, “Oh thank God we have
been trying to get this forever” she replied “I don’t normally get that reaction”.
It was apparent this lady was not visiting at our request but just doing an audit. She
found nothing to be wrong that week with our accounts.
Eventually, they did send two auditors who were there for two days and both confirmed
they could not find anything wrong with our accounting. They went into so many more
functions of Horizon on Rollover, which we were not able to access.
However, the Post Office was still taking large amounts of money from our monthly
salary, we spoke of several occasions about the Horizon machine not functioning and
were met with total denial.
My partner noticed that when a power cut happened, which was a fairly regular
occurrence locally, when the Horizon rebooted the figures were sometimes wrong. We
were told that this was impossible because the Horizon would reboot as before.
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99. Due to the area, we could sometimes have two or three power cuts in the space of a
few hours, which meant we had to close the Post Office down until Horizon could be
rebooted.
100. Eventually, as a result of these shortfalls I got called to Exeter for a meeting with the
Post Office where I was questioned by the Area Manager Gary Adderley, who we had
never been aware of as being our manager.
101. When the meeting was initially arranged on the phone he told me that he was a “debt
collector” and he kept this fagade going until partway through the meeting.
102. His questioning was very aggressive and he made me feel like a criminal wit. He had no
compassion as to whether what I was reporting was right. As far as he was concerned
the Horizon System was infallible and at one point even asked “Do you trust your staff”
I replied “It is only me and my partner running our business” and he replied “do you
trust him”.
103. We were also accused of taking money from the safe.
104, There was an evening where we had tried to cash up and because I could not get
assistance, we shut the computer down and went to bed, because we were so stressed
about the discrepancy. My partner got back up after midnight and tried again to
balance. We were questioned why the safe was opened up at that time and it was
suggested that “perhaps that was when your partner had taken money from the safe!”
105. Over the years in excess of £12,000.00 was taken from our salaries to pay for these
alleged shortfalls.
106. We had to borrow thousands of pounds from my elderly mother who was living with us
at the time, just to survive.
107. We maxed out credit cards that we are still paying off to this day to cover the shortfalls.
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108. Both my partner and I started to suffer from depression and anxiety due to the stress.
We both ended up going to the GP and taking antidepressants. We dreaded each
Wednesday when the cash-up was due and we would spend hours checking over the
accounts late into the evening.
109. Both my partner and I still take anti-depressants, and we both struggle with our mental
health; something I attribute directly to the wrongful accusations made against us.
110. We had endless sleepless nights and even our customers commented on how we were
tired and miserable we were looking.
111. Eventually, although I was officially the Subpostmistress, I could not take the anxiety
and stress anymore of the shortfalls and the accusations of us being dishonest so I had
to leave to get away from it all.
112. My partner, Gerald, tried to officially take over as Supostmaster but unfortunately,
although we both owned the business and had been trained in the Post Office, they
would not allow him to take over unless he went through a full application procedure,
including a new business plan.
113. This caused even more stress and anxiety for the both of us so we decided to leave my
name on the paperwork as Postmistress, but Gerald took over the running of the Post
Office, Sorting Office, and Shop.
114, We never had any staff, as we could not afford them, so Gerald had to do this all on his
own and subsequently he became more ill and was being treated for anxiety and
depression.
115. In the nine years we were trading we had no holidays, or breaks at all, mainly because
as we had a sorting office we could not get anyone to act as a relief who would open up
six days a week at 7.00am.
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116. During this time Gerald only slept off-site for only 4 nights, once was to attend his
Mother’s funeral in Hertfordshire, and once whilst he was in hospital recovering from a
nasal operation. I was more fortunate as I could at least go to visit relatives.
117. Being a new business, we were constantly trying to build up the revenue but as each
month went by we suffered more losses and as a result our motivation diminished and
we were worrying constantly about the end of the month when Horizon was possibly
going to take more money from us.
118. Eventually, we sadly decided to put the business on the market, unfortunately, we could
not sell it as a going concern, the estate agents were aware of the problems with the
Horizon and we were told because of this reason village post offices were not selling.
119. We even tried to get the Exford Parish Council to take over the Post Office as a
Community Asset but even they rejected the idea.
120. After two years of trying to sell we were able to take the opportunity of the Post Office
Network Transformation Scheme and the Post Office was transferred into another
village shop, unfortunately, the Royal Mail Sorting Office was closed so the village lost
this asset.
121. We closed the shop down completely as without the monthly Post Office salary income
it was just not viable.
122. I am 70 years old now and still having to work to because we are still paying off the
original business loan.
123. The consequences of being held responsible for the shortfalls were that each month a
large amount of money was being taken from our salary to pay back these shortfalls,
we were having to subsidise this with the small amount of savings we had, credit cards
and borrowed money.
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124, We would dread Wednesdays when it came to balancing. The shortfalls were constant
and we would not get to bed until midnight every single Wednesday.
125. We both previously had very stressful jobs, so we do not panic easily but the stress of
the Post Office was just unbearable.
126. It was constant and the stress and anxiety became so bad that we both ended up on
antidepressants.
127. I had to leave the post office to get away from this and the impact it was having on my
health.
128. The countryside lifestyle we had dreamed of resulted in us not leaving the business for
any holidays or breaks in years.
129. Our health was deteriorating and the lack of support from the Post Office was making
us fearful of the consequences.
130. In the nine years of running the Post Office, we only once had a visit from an area
manager and that was in the first year so we were alone with the accusations and the
fear of consequences.
131. Our dreams of a happy retirement have been shattered. I am now 70 and have to work
for the NHS full time to pay for the outstanding business loan.
132. We are mature people who had worked throughout our life, paying our taxes and being
upstanding citizens, we had not borrowed money apart from mortgages and were now
being accused of fraud and theft; it was just shocking to us.
133. It was an awful experience to be put through and even worse because it was no fault of
our own.
134. The sheer frustration and helplessness was incomprehensible.
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135. We were not prosecuted or pursued in the civil courts, as we had paid back the
discrepancies through the post office salary.
136. However, we were threatened with prosecution if we did not pay the shortfalls, but as
we were paying they could not prosecute us.
137. It took such a toll on us that even our customers started to notice and comment on our
demeanour. We were struggling day in and day out.
138. I had my disabled mother living with me, who I was taking care of at the time, she had
on several occasions helped us out financially to overcome the financial difficulties,
which only added more guilt and stress to us.
139. We were not in a position to see or visit our friends and families who all live hundreds
of miles away we didn’t have the money to have a social life.
140. It was so draining that we did not even want to be social.
141. We lost all of our money and we lost our dreams.
142. It has completely put us off business; we have not and would not ever consider taking
ona business again.
143. We had moved hundreds of miles away from family and friends and so we had nobody
to confide in. I was losing weight and remained unwell and unfortunately, my partner
was suffering in the same way.
144. The only family we had locally was my mother who was living with us at and supporting
us financially.
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I have a disabled autistic adult son, who would come home every 6 weeks for weekends
but because of the awful situation and my mental health at the time, I had to cancel the
visits on many occasions.
I lost out on spending valuable time with my son.
CONCLUSION
147,
148.
149,
150.
151.
152.
153.
My partner, Gerald, has been unable to find work since the post office and I am now 70
years old and still working full time in order to pay of the business loan.
We would have been loan free and retired by now had it not been for the Post Office
ruining our lives.
We are so bitter towards the Post Office, and the people in charge, for the lack of
support they offered and how unwell they made us.
We avoid using a Post Office now; we use Hermes for any personal parcel deliveries.
We want the people who knew what was going to be held to account. Not a single Sub-
Postmaster should have been put through such an ordeal.
We also would like to get the compensation we fully deserve and I would love an
apology.
Taking over the Post Office is something we wished we had never done.
STATEMENT OF TRUTH
I believe the contents of this Statement to be true.
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