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Witness Name: Mrs Donna Gosney
Statement No: WITNO262_01
AA Ls Exhibits: none
THE POST OFFICE HORIZON INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF MRS DONNA GOSNEY
I, MRS DONNA GOSNEY 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
2s I live with my husband David Gosney in Poole, Dorset. We have two children, one
son and one daughter. Both our children have grown up and moved into their own
homes. Our son is married and has a daughter.
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Prior to becoming a subpostmistress, I worked as a teaching assistant at a school for
children with special needs for 5 years. I also previously ran a nursery and playgroup.
I had worked for thirteen and a half years in child care.
My husband was in the military for 23 years, and we used to move every three years,
depending on where my husband was stationed. When he retired, we used some of
his gratuity to buy our house in Shipton village. Our children settled in nicely in the
village and had made good friends.
went to the Post Office on his behalf. The
owner, I told me that he was moving to Australia and was selling the
post office and shop attached.
1 went home to David and said to him that I thought that running a post office might
be perfect for us, as he had been away so much in his military career. We sold our
house in the village, and we used the proceeds and £10,000 that my dad leant us to
buy the post office and shop.
1! loved my job as a teaching assistant and I was reluctant to leave. I only left because
David and I had spent so many years apart, and I thought that it would be quite nice
to spend some time together.
I thought that the Post Office would be a safe and secure job, I could not think of
anything safer, as the Post Office had been around for years and years. I thought that
running a post office had prospects, and we could make enough money by making
the post office a good and thriving post office. I could not think of a better job than
having a post office, combined with a village shop. I thought it was a little gold mine.
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I believed that we could run the post office until retirement. We loved the job and
fell into it quite well. Businesswise I thought it was a good idea for me to run the
post office and my husband run the shop.
I was a Subpostmistress of Shipton Bellinger, Hants SP9 7TW from 25 October 2001
to 24 April 2007. We lived on the premises in a nice flat above the shop. It was a
good set up.
We operated a local general village store called Parkhouse Stores. It was a grocery
store with an Off Licence and a National Lottery terminal. The store was run by my
husband, myself and part time staff.
I had one assistant, Karen Mundy, who was employed by me in the Post Office until
her arrest for theft, which I detail below. Mrs Mundy worked in the post office prior
to my appointment and her continued employment was upon the recommendation
of the previous subpostmistress, Gaynor Nash and the Post Office, who had trained
her on the horizon system.
1 signed an Acknowledgment of Appointment on 24 October 2001 when I went to
the interview to be a subpostmistress. I was told by my Post Office interviewer that a
contract would follow but it never did. It was not explained to me that this
document contained contractual terms, which could be relied upon to.hold me liable
for any losses, regardless of cause. This only came up in my disciplinary hearing in
2007.
TRAINING AND SUPPORT
14.
My initial training was supposed to be two weeks long. However, I only received two
days of training at the Crown Post Office in Salisbury, which consisted only of stock
related training. This was one to one training whereby I was familiarised to a limited
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degree with stamps and premium bonds. It did not cover paperwork and there was
no hands-on training on Horizon procedures or how to work it.
The off-site training mainly focused on accounting for daily transactions and how to
sell products. There was no training in relation to balancing, what to do with
discrepancies or the settle centrally function.
In fact, there was very little on the Horizon system in general and it mainly seemed
targeted at the sales element of running a Post Office. The Post Office were pushing
new products through and trying to get you to sell as many as you could.
I was meant to receive 10 days one to one training in-house. The trainer came on the
first day and expected me to be hands on, without any training, while he sat at the
back of the office playing basketball with rolled up pieces of paper and the
wastepaper bin. I could not believe it.
My first customer at the post office had to pay a bill and the trainer only told me
what buttons to press, he gave no explanation of the buttons’ functions.
During the first week, the trainer was meant to help me do my balance on the
Wednesday, and then on the following week he was meant to observe that I did the
balance correctly.
However, for my first balance the trainer just did the balance himself and didn’t
explain the procedure. He did not instruct me how to use Horizon, how to correct
any errors or look into why errors were occurring.
The balance showed a £30 shortfall. The trainer told me that if I did not immediately
make good the alleged shortfall, I would not be able to open the next day and so he
told me to just pay it.
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The trainer was supposed to help me with the second balance but he just left me on
my own and went home early. I was asking questions but he gave no answers and no
reason. He was very unapproachable.
The first 2 days that he came to my branch he was on time and took an hour for
lunch. However, after we did the first balance on Wednesday, he came late on
Thursday and Friday, took 3 hours for lunch and spent his time driving around
looking at sights.
I specifically asked the trainer if it was acceptable for the existing financial
management system to be continued. When I took over from Gaynor Nash, she had
a system in place where Mrs Mundy would balance and check stamps by lunchtime,
and Gaynor Nash would check lottery and roll the accounts over at the end of the
day. The trainer expressly told me that I should continue with this process for doing
the balancing, and said that ‘if it's not broken don’t fix it.” This system was how Mrs
Mundy stole money from the post office.
I complained about the trainer and requested further training. A Manager (Fiona
Tucker) came to my branch but she spent more time chatting with Mrs Mundy about
a pyramid scheme that they were in together than sorting out the problems in the
post office.
Ms Tucker told me that the trainer had taught me all he could and from here on !
should call the helpline or consult the operations manual if I had any difficulties. I
found this frustrating.
HELPLINE
27.
I believe I contacted the Post Office helpline at least 132 times between November
2001 and April 2007. It was usually in regards to shortfalls connected to the lottery
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terminal. They normally told me to “make good any shortfall I had found if I wanted
to open the next day”, this was a standard phrase they used.
The helpline was never actually helpful, and often made the situation worse. Their
attitude was very blasé and they were not at all helpful. They were robotic and I
always felt like they were reading from a script.
It was quite normal for the helpline to tell me different things for the same problem
if I called multiple times per day. The advice would not work and I would call back,
but the same person never answered. Sometimes when I would follow helpline
advice the shortfall would multiply.
When I called the helpline, no matter the particular issue with Horizon, I was always
told that I was the only one with this particular issue and that they had never
encountered problems like mine before.
1 do not think any of the helpline advisors had any training, because they could never
fix a problem, 9 out of 10 times the problem multiplied, and the same person never
answered my calls.
The Helpline would tell me to use the operations manual, and I would also get
notifications telling me to check the operations manual. I would look at the
operations manual but it was not helpful, as it didn’t have the right information.
In 2003, I received a notice saying that I had received a roll of stamps to the value of
£500. This was impossible, as I did not have an outside stamp machine in my Post
Office.
I called the helpline and was told to REM (remit) the stamps through anyway and the
system would correct itself and balance. It did not work and when I called the
helpline back, they told me I should not have done this and that I should have put
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the value in a suspense account. I explained that a helpline advisor had told me to do
this, but the new helpline advisor said that I had been given the wrong advice. The
money was then put into the suspense account.
35. The Post Office then demanded I make good this shortfall. I refused as we hadn’t
been given the stamps. The Post Office responded that I needed to make good my
suspense account, they said that if I didn’t make it good, they would take the money
out of my wages. I refused to pay the money and when my wages came the Post
Office had taken all of the shortfall amount out from one months’ wages.
36. We complained about the Post Office deducting monies from my wages to the area
manager. He said that the Post Office had looked into the matter and that I was at
fault and had to pay. He told me I was the only one with this problem and that they
had never experienced this problem before.
37. After this incident, I kept a log book and wrote down the names, problems and times
that I called the helpline. I told Mrs Mundy to keep a record of her calls with the
helpline in the book, this was removed from my office by the audit team, and has
never been seen since.
SHORTFALLS
38. 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.
39. 1 would estimate that throughout my position in the branch, I paid, or the Post Office
deducted, in excess of £800. However, the Post Office also sought to recover
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£189,000 from me, in circumstances where the Post Office knew, as a matter of fact,
that I was not responsible for these monies.
Over the period I was subpostmistress I repaid hundreds of pounds in shortfalls. The
printer was often offline, and this made it difficult to run off reports for my
Wednesday balance, which in turn made it difficult for me to look for potential
discrepancies.
\ kept a diary of all phone calls logged with the helpline after the stamp roll incident,
but on 24 April 2007 when the Post Office removed paperwork from my office
{detailed below) they removed the diary and this has not been returned.
In 2003 I had a shortfall of £500 from stamp rolls. This amount was deducted from
my remuneration. When the error first showed, I contacted the helpline to say that I
had not received the roll of stamps the £500 was alluding to. I did not have a stamp
machine and so ! would not receive a stamp delivery at all. The helpline told me to
REM (remit) the value through the system and it would balance and rectify itself. I
later called back when this did not work and they told me that this was incorrect
advice and I should have put the £500 into a suspense account, which I subsequently
did. I was then told to pay this money back. I refused but the Post Office deducted it
from my wages anyway.
On 29 July 2005 I had a shortfall of £124.64 and £3.04 from a previous surplus not
withdrawn. This was made up of £77.86 cash figures and £49.82 stock figures. I paid
the shortfall immediately as instructed by the auditor who discovered it. He told me I
would not be able to open the following day if I did not pay it back that day, as I
wouldn’t be balanced. I was not aware of the shortfall prior to the audit.
On 24 April 2007 I had a shortfall of over £189,000 consisting of £1.68 difference in
cash figures, £40.82 stamps and £189,000 in cheques (which Karen Mundy stole). I
did not pay this money back to the Post Office. It was soon discovered that my
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assistant Karen Mundy had stolen £189,000 worth of cheques and she was later
convicted for theft.
What astonishes me is why the Post Office’s Horizon System did not pick up this
massive loss of money, but that it only came to light in an audit.
The Post Office pursued me for the money regardless of the fact that Mrs Mundy
accepted responsibility for this theft and was convicted of theft of this money.
Despite this, and despite the fact that it was accepted by the Post Office that I had
no hand in this theft/loss, the Post Office sought to recover this money from me.
The Post Office suspended me on 24 April 2007.
I later went for a disciplinary hearing with the Post Office, where they told me they
had interviewed Mrs Mundy and she admitted that she had stolen all the money.
The Post Office told me that they would recover the money from Mrs Mundy, but !
knew she did not have the money. I told the interviewers this, and they then said
that they would come after me for the money. Their attitude was that they wanted
the money back one way or the other.
AUDIT AND INVESTIGATION
49.
50.
I was audited on 29 July 2005 and a shortfall of £124.64 was found which I
immediately made good.
In February 2007, I received a phone call from the Post Office cash handling
department informing me that £112,000 was missing from my accounts and must be
being held in my safe. I said that this was not possible and mentioned the phone call
to Mrs Mundy who laughed and said it must be a paper error, because she did the
cash balance, I accepted what she said. The Post Office seemed to accept my
explanation at that time and I heard nothing further until the audit in April.
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I was audited on 24 April 2007 by Derek Edmunds and Paul Holland. I was present for
the audit, however, I had to wait in my dining room which was adjacent to the Post
Office and they closed the adjacent door to the Post Office.
The auditors turned up first thing in the morning and within five minutes of
beginning the audit, they had closed my Post Office and informed me of the alleged
shortfall of over £189,000.
Mrs Mundy was in the shop and I immediately called her through to the post office,
as she was also involved in doing the balancing, and the auditors were asking
questions which I thought she might have the answer to.
Both Mrs Mundy and I were shocked at the alleged shortfall, and I was initially sure it
must have been a paper error. Mrs Mundy then said she had to leave, as she was not
due to be in work at that time. She told us that she was going home to walk her dog
and would be back in half an hour. She went home, called husband and then her
husband called an ambulance as she took an overdose. Mrs Mundy had to have her
stomach pumped.
The Post Office called the police and their fraud investigation team left immediately
after Mrs Mundy had left.
I was told by the audit team that I had to pay the alleged debt/loss.
I was also told by the Post Office’s Fraud Investigation Team, whilst they were in my
office, that it would be unfair for me to be made to pay this money back if it was
proven that Mrs Mundy was guilty of theft; which they were starting to suspect as
Ms Mundy had undertaken all the of cheque transfers under her own log.
Mrs Mundy eventually admitted to having stolen the £189,000 and pleaded guilty to
theft. She was convicted of one count of theft and one count of dishonesty making
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false representation to make gain for herself on 8 February 2008 in Salisbury Crown
Court. Mrs Mundy was ordered to pay £1,000 compensation. She was sentenced
21 months’ imprisonment.
The Post Office investigation was carried out by Graham Brander on 24 April 2007.
The audit team and fraud and investigation team were involved. The audit team was
made up of two people, and the fraud investigation team was made up of three
people. Both teams acted like they had one good cop who was friendly, one bad cop
who was intimidating and one indifferent cop who was sneaky.
Before Mrs Mundy was arrested and charged, I was interviewed under caution as
part of the investigation. It was such a long and intimidating day; I had never felt so
frightened in my life. It was the worst day of my life.
My husband was allowed to stay with me during the investigation. We were both
totally in shock for the whole day, it was like an out of body experience. It was very
surreal and we were bombarded with questions and.demands for information by the
investigation team. It felt as though all of a sudden, our world was collapsing around
me.
At the time, one of the investigators told me to write a written statement, I was in
total shock as I have never been in trouble with the law, and so I felt intimidated into
writing a statement. I wish I had never written the statement as the Post Office tried
to twist this later on.
Most of the discrepancies, but not all, can be put down to Mrs Mundy moving large
amounts of money through a dormant account with the Post Office, which the Post
Office should have picked up upon at central hub. This was an account that I was
unaware existed. Mrs Mundy had been moving money from the Post Office account
into a PayPal account and then into her personal account. I was told this by the court
when I later phoned them.
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The fact that such a large sum of money could go missing from the accounts
demonstrates what a poor and unreliable system Horizon was.
Following my interview under caution, I was kept completely in the dark about the
investigation and what was going on. The only way I could get any information as to
what was going on with the investigation was by threatening to refuse the Post
Office access to my post office without them first giving me my disciplinary hearing
date.
The Post Office said that they wanted to come to my branch and remove the
contents of our safe. My husband told them that they would be trespassing, as they
would have to go through our private premises to get to the safe. He said to them
that when they come back with a date for my disciplinary hearing they could come
back.
I attended a disciplinary meeting on 16 May 2007 with my contracts manager Carol
Ballan and Ellaine Ridge to discuss my suspension. This was horrendous. They kept
saying they had not made a decision regarding my appointment. Through the
meeting, it became apparent they were only interested in how I was going to repay
the monies stolen by Mrs Mundy.
My husband was not allowed to come with me to my disciplinary meeting. I was
advised that 1! was able to have a National Federation of Subpostmasters
representative present. I went to the subpostmaster in the next village, as I knew he
was a federation representative.
The National Federation representative told me that this is how it works, you are just
expected to make good losses, so I decided not to take him with me as he was
negative, and clearly on the Post Office’s side.
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I asked the Post Office if I could bring my friend who was a police officer; however
they said that I could not bring him. I said I would not go if my friend could not come
with me and so they let me bring him but said that he couldn’t say anything.
My police officer friend made notes during the meeting and at the end he asked if
the Post Office were done, and when they said that they were, my friend told them
that you cannot charge two different people for the same crime.
The Post Office representatives at the disciplinary meeting were very hard-faced
women, they took what my friend had to say and walked out. They acted like a pair
of robots and repeated that my issues had not happened before. They kept saying
“it’s in your contract that you have to make good any losses”. I said to them that it
does not say that I had to make good theft.
I told them that I never received a contract so they sent it the next day special
delivery. It was following this meeting that I first saw a copy of the Standard
Subpostmaster Contract.
I had an initial consultation with Blanchard Bailey Solicitors soon after 1 was
dismissed. I formally instructed them upon receiving a formal claim from Post Office
Limited, which was soon after Mrs Mundy was convicted. The Post Office were
pursuing me for breach of contract because I refused to pay the monies that Mrs
Mundy had stolen.
Blanchard Bailey requested all the audit and full investigation documents from the
Post Office, but we were told that this would be too expensive to provide. When it
became apparent that the Post Office was coming after me for the money, my
solicitors asked that my book that contained my helpline call records be returned,
however, the Post Office denied all knowledge of it ever being held by them.
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76. — After I was cleared of any wrong doing the investigation was then focused on
Mrs Mundy and her actions.
SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION
77. I was suspended on 24 April 2007.
78 [GRO
i was appointed a temporary manager on 11 July 2007 and continued for
6-7 years.
79. My post office was stripped of all paperwork on 24 April 2007 and the keys were
removed on the same day.
80. My appointment was terminated on 13 June 2007 relating to the shortfall.
81. According to my termination letter dated 13 June 2007 from Carol Ballan, the
grounds of my termination were cash and stock not being kept in the prescribed
manor and lack of controls and false accounting within the branch, which led to the
loss found in the audit.
82. A potential buyer came into my post office and informed me that he had been told
by a member of the fraud investigation team that I would be selling my post office
off cheaply due to the theft and my mental health. He had heard that I was stressed
and unwell and that I wanted to move away.
83. This buyer said that a member of the fraud investigation team had contacted him
and informed him of their investigation. This buyer knew more than I did about
Mrs Mundy’s prosecution and it was through him that I discovered Mrs Mundy had
been convicted. The potential buyer advised me to contact the court.
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My husband and I had not discussed selling the post office and we were surprised to
hear that the fraud investigation team had been telling people that we would be
selling.
I reached the stage of completion with this buyer when the sale fell through because
he said he wanted an additional £10,000 to be deducted from the price because of
the issues. He knew we were desperate to sell because of the state I was in.
The store was eventually sold to somebody else for £50,000 excluding the stock. I
initially purchased it for £112,000 excluding stock. We could not sell our post office
because Post Office Limited had already employed a temporary manager,
[GRO} The post office is no longer there.
CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
87. The Post Office pursued civil proceedings against me for the recovery of the alleged
shortfalls. The Post Office pursued me for breach of contract because I refused to
pay the monies that Mrs Mundy had stolen. They obtained a judgment against me as
1 was unable to fund my defence in court.
88. The Post Office did not pursue criminal proceedings against me although they
threatened to do so.
LOSSES
89. I was led to believe that I had no alternative but to pay the shortfalls. I estimate that
I paid, or the Post Office deducted, in excess of £800.
90. I lost the value of my business. I purchased the premises for approximately £112,000
(plus £2,000 legal fees) plus stock of the value of approximately £20,000.
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I was suspended for around 7 weeks. Based on my average monthly salary I lost
earnings of around £2,423.
I received £25 per week from the interim post master when he took up the post in
July 2007.
During my suspension, and without my being in the post office, the general store
also had significant losses, we were barely keeping afloat, because the local people
had reservations about using the post office after the events. Without this footfall, I
would estimate that the store lost approximately £200 per day up until the business
was sold in 2009.
I suffered a loss of earnings due to the Post Office failing to give me notice. Based on
3 months’ notice I would have been due: £4,500, based on 6 months’ notice I would
have been due: £9,000 and based on 12 months’ notice I would have been due:
£18,000.
I planned to remain in my position in the Post Office for around a further 10 years
before selling the business and using the proceeds of sale to buy a property in
Southern England and have no mortgage to pay in my retirement. Therefore, I
anticipate that this loss of future income was around £180,000 (based on my
average annual salary of £18,000).
The actions of the Post Office caused irreparable damage to my reputation.
It was so severe that the local vicar organised a village meeting in order to dispel the
rumours, which my husband David attended in order to explain the situation,
rumours were rife and people continued to avoid the village shop.
I ran the shop with my husband before the termination of my appointment. I found
the stress and aggressive manner in which I was treated too much, and moved away
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from the village I had lived in for 13 years, to live with my daughter. I left my
husband and son for about a year with the expense of finding a part time manager to
take on my role. I simply could not cope.
My son ran the shop on weekends, which enabled my husband to come see us and
have a break as he was struggling too. We were all struggling, as none of us had been
in trouble with law before; we had always lived on right side of law.
I lived in Shipton Bellinger for 13 years and was a big part of the community. I
worked at the local school, and was part of a voluntary team running the local youth
club. Moving away from the community where I was well thought of has been very
hard.
I found the aggressive manner in which I was treated by the Post Office unbearable.
Having been an active member of village life 1! could not stay in the village as my
reputation was in question.
1 was put on sleeping pills to help me sleep and I attended counselling to try and put
my life back on track and deal with anxiety. I am still on medication for anxiety.
I tried to cut down on the use of sleeping pills this summer but this caused stress
related eczema for which I have to use steroid creams. My doctor has advised me
not to cut down on the sleeping pills, and I am back on the full dose.
I had found employment, but I have never been well enough to work full time again.
The thought of attending another interview makes me very anxious and I do not
think I am strong enough. I have taken voluntary retirement for my own sanity and
have to live more simply to cope.
1 was declared bankrupt in November 2011 and this was discharged in 2013. My
Trustee in Bankruptcy was Moore Steele. I paid £700 for the bankruptcy petition.
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106. My husband offered the Post Office a settlement of £12,000 to stop me from being
made bankrupt but this was refused by the Post Office.
107. I received a small amount of damages from the Group Litigation. However, £11,000
of the settlement went to Moore Steal to pay them back for the bankruptcy.
108. As a result of the bankruptcy, I had been unable to get a joint account with my
husband David.
109. I was also forced to sell my share of the family home to David for £30,000. This
money went towards legal and travel costs. David also had to take out the mortgage
on our new family home in his sole name.
110. As part of my previous employment at the Church of England, I was asked to be a
director of Wimborne Minister Limited. This meant that I had to explain my situation
with the Post Office Limited and my full bankruptcy details to the other trustees.
Thankfully, this has not affected my standing within the Church but it did cause
anxiety and stress to myself.
111. I paid £19,000 in legal expenses to my solicitor Blanchard's Bailey. 1 estimate that I
also incurred in or around £200 in travel expenses in regards to the Civil Proceedings.
HUMAN IMPACT
112. The problems caused by the Horizon System and the Post Office action against me has
been a huge source of distress and embarrassment for me. It has also hindered me
professionally and prevented any meaningful employment. I have not worked full time
since and actually gave up working altogether due to the deterioration of my health. I
suffer from severe anxiety, which hinders my life in every facet of living.
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113. I was a party to the group litigation against Post Office Ltd, as such I am excluded from
the Historic Shortfall Scheme.
114. I was sacked from my role of subpostmistress that I had held for almost 6 years, as a
result of being required to make good shortfalls. I had enjoyed this role as it used my
brain and I liked the people and customers. The job was hard at times, but enjoyable.
115. I felt forced to move from our business and home due to the constant pressure and
bullying from the Post Office, and the stigma of the whole episode had caused in our
smail village community.
116. I got to a point where I could not open mail or answer my phone as I was petrified.
People would ask “what's going on”, but I would think ! was only one having these
problems and so I wouldn’t talk about it, It felt like my head was in a vice.
4117. When I refused to pay any of the shortfalls back and we sold the business, Post Office
Limited asked my husband, who was not involved in any way with the post office, to
use his proceeds from the sale, plus a monthly payment of approximately £600 a
month to settle the shortfall. The Post Office told my husband that if he did so they
would stop the court case against me for breach of contract.
118. When my husband refused to use all the proceeds from the sale to settle the
shortfalls, as this would result in us living on the streets, Post Office Limited took me
to court and I was forced into bankruptcy.
119. When I was made bankrupt, it was for a year. Because I only owed Post Office Limited
money, Moore Steal put an application in for my one-year bankruptcy to be reduced
to 6 months’ bankruptcy. However, Post Office Limited refused the application. I
found this to be very nasty and petty.
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120. Some of the shortfalls were caused by the Horizon system, these included shortfalls
relating to the lottery and stamps. But most of the shortfalls I experienced were
caused by a theft carried out by my employee Mrs Mundy. However, this should have
been picked up by the Horizon System if it was an adequate system.
121. I was told by the fraud investigation team that if Mrs Mundy could repay the stolen
monies nothing would happen to me, but if she couldn't repay the money then the
Post Office would come after me.
122. Although Mrs Mundy admitted to taking the money and was sentenced to 21 months
in prison, I was still expected to pay back the £189,000 she was unable to repay.
123. Mrs Mundy was very popular, friendly, kind and everyone liked her. I befriended her
and she had never done anything to make me doubt her. I could not understand how
somebody who was under my roof, in my house and working with me could steal from
the post office. I felt extremely betrayed and had a complete loss of trust in people.
124. I can forgive Mrs Mundy after all these years, because she was stealing the money to
feed her gambling habit, and gambling is an illness. However, I cannot forgive the Post
Office, because from day they called me about the missing £112,000 they must have
known that something was wrong. However, between February and April they sat
back and watched Mrs Mundy take more money as the discrepancies kept getting
larger and the only person who suffered was me.
125. The consequences of being held responsible for the shortfalls upon myself and entire
family were immense.
126. I became so mentally ill I was put on medication, which I still take until this day. I had a
course of counselling.
127. I was advised by my GP to move from the area, and re-locate for health reasons
relating to my depression and anxiety.
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128. [had depression. I contemplated suicide. I thought that if I jumped out the window my
problem would go away.
129. I spent a morning contemplating walking away or ending it to get it over with. Only the
thought of my kids and husband stopped me.
130. My solicitor had told me that the only way he could see out of the situation was if
David and I got divorced and split up financially, However, David said no.
131. We had been married for 40 years, and I was worried that the Post Office were going
after him. This conversation with the solicitor and my worries about David was a
trigger for me contemplating suicide.
132. After my son graduated from university, he had to give up a year of his career as a
history teacher. Instead of going out into workforce, he came back to help my
husband run the village shop and to sell the business we had spent the last 8 years
building.
133. Due to my mental health declining, I moved in with my daughter, which put pressure
on her.
134. My daughter was half way through her police training and she had to disclose to the
police what had happened with our post office, which was embarrassing for her. She
tried to hide the pressure she felt from me.
135. I had to sell my share of our house to my husband to fund the court case the Post
Office had brought against me to try and clear my name through the legal route.
136. I used all monies in my name to try to take on the Post Office. I ran out of funds for
legal representation, and a judgement was made against me in favour of the Post
Office. I was ordered to pay the Post Office almost a quarter of a million pounds,
including their legal fees and interest, which forced me into bankruptcy.
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137. It was upsetting for me to have to sell my share of our home. Now aged 60, I have
nothing financial to show for my life. Knowing that the house is not mine by law makes
me feel rubbish and inadequate.
138. I have only recently (since last month) been able to get a joint bank account with my
husband again. However, previously I did not want to have a joint account with my
husband because I didn’t trust that Post Office Limited wouldn’t try and come after us
and take everything again.
139. I cannot apply for any form of credit, and I remain unable to be put back on the joint
mortgage for our house, which would have been paid-off by now. As things stand
now, my husband will be repaying the mortgage until he is 72 years old.
140. Since the audit on 24 April 2007 when I was suspended, I have never been well
enough to work full time.
141. As a result of Covid, I was made redundant from my part time admin role at the
Church but due to the effects of my experience with the Post Office I do not have the
confidence to apply for another job.
142. Asa result, of being accused of committing a criminal offence I went from being a very
self-confident person who had run three successful businesses in my career to a
person who could not cope with the day-to-day chores of running a household.
143. The whole episode with the Post Office has left me on medication for the last 13 years
and unable to hold down a full-time job or apply for jobs that I would have been able
to apply for before, due to having a bankruptcy against my name.
144. I was sued by the Post Office as a result of being unable to repay the monies that Mrs
Mundy stole that they were claiming from me. I have been unable to apply for
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145.
146.
147.
148.
149.
150.
151.
meaningful full-time employment as a career because of the bankruptcy and I do not
have confidence now to go through an interview. It is like a dirty little secret that
follows you around.
By far the worse effect of this whole situation has been a very stressful and
undignified conversation I needed to have with my father when he was diagnosed
with terminal cancer.
I nursed my father through his cancer and having explained my situation, I had to ask
him to rewrite his will and leave my inheritance to my husband so that the Post Office
could not claim it. I did not want the Post Office to take what my father had worked
for all his life.
My father died not knowing if I was going to be all right. This is unforgiveable.
We had tried to keep as much as possible away from him as we did not want to add to
the stress of my father’s illness and he couldn’t understand. My father was very
worried about what would happen would happen to me. It was heart breaking.
The issues I had with the Post Office impacted upon my relationships with my family,
friends and community.
Some of the local community were very supportive, but many others were not.
Rumours were rife around the village and this is why my GP, who lived in the next
village, advised me to move from the area. My GP also had Mrs Mundy as a patient so
he knew about the rumours.
We lost several long-term friends who found it hard to understand how such a trusted
enterprise like the Post Office would have a computer system that allowed such a
thing to happen. A couple of our friends expressed this to me directly. It made me feel
bad that friends I had made thought the Post Office was more trustworthy than me.
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152. Since moving to Poole I have not made any friends as this whole experience has made
me lose trust in people.
153. Once I relocated, in Poole, I eventually worked for the Church of England as a part
time manager of the Church gift shop, and after some time I was asked to become a
director of the shop.
154. One of the stipulations of this was that I had never been made bankrupt, so I had the
shameful task of telling them that I had, and actually still was a bankrupt. Once again,
this prompted some very uncomfortable attitudes towards me. Some of the people I
worked with started avoiding me.
155. My family and remaining friends have been very supportive, but are sick to death of
the whole situation and its prolonged effect on me and my family after 13 long years.
156. My family never doubted me, luckily, we are a strong family and stuck together.
157. Asa result, of what happened and the relentless hounding of me by the Post Office,
my son had to put his career on hold in a bid to help my husband run the shop whilst
we were trying to sell it.
158. My son found this extremely stressful and this in turn put extreme pressure on his
relationship with his partner and they eventually ended splitting. They had been
together for 4/5 years but the pressure got too much for them.
159. My daughter's mental health also deteriorated as a result of having to support me
whilst studying to become a police officer. She suffered with depression and found the
studying and physical side during her police training, the issues with the Post Office
and her grandad having terminal cancer were all too much.
160. When the business eventually did sell, we were only able to achieve half the value we
originally paid for it because the post office element was no longer ours to sell. This
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has had a huge impact on all my family, as we still continue to struggle to meet every
day financial commitments.
161. My husband is still working as he has to pay the mortgage, he had planned to retire by
now but will have to work for at least another 12 years.
162. My husband is a strong man who had tried to keep it together but his mental health
had also gotten really bad.
163. Asa family, it has made us all very wary of trusting people and very wary of accepting
new people into our circle.
164. My son didn’t tell his now wife for a very long time about my suspension from the
post office, I was worried this would affect their relationship as she is a gorgeous lady
but luckily everyone understood.
165. I don’t celebrate my birthday anymore because 2 days before my birthday I had the
audit where I was terminated. I now only have bad memories and I am reminded of
that awful day each year when my birthday comes around.
CONCLUSION
166. We now live in a house much less nice than that which we had before. We feel that
we had worked hard for nothing, just to line the pockets of the Post Office. We didn’t
think that we would be working this hard to pay our debts off at our age.
167. I would go back to work if 1 could but I can’t due to my mental health, it's not what it
should be. The Post Office shortfalls and threat of a court case against me put a strain
on our marriage for a very long time.
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168. I have managed to get help for my depression and it is getting better as time goes on,
but it is struggle and something that I have to work on all the time.
169. The public inquiry has helped, as hopefully those responsible will be found liable and
named and shamed if nothing else. I want to put it all to bed now.
170. I think that the whole Post Office as an institution needs to be blown up and put back
with completely different people and be more transparent with what they are doing.
171. 1 want the Inquiry to recommend redress for the 555 subpostmasters who were part
of the Group Litigation, as we are currently excluded from Post Office compensation
schemes.
172. I want the Inquiry to hold those at the Post Office to account for what they've done. I
want Paula Vennels to be stripped off her titles and awards.
173. I want the situation to be put right, and for this to never happen to anybody else
again. I do not want the Post Office to exploit others like they have me.
174. 1 would like a printed apology in the newspaper where I used to live in Shipton,
Bellinger to put my reputation right.
Statement of Truth
I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.
Donna Gosney
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