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Witness Name: Mr Gareth Etheridge
Statement No.: WITN0322_01
Exhibits: None
Dated: 14.03.22
THE POST OFFICE HORIZON INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF MR GARETH ETHERIDGE
I, MR GARETH ETHERIDGE 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. My wife, Tracey, and I have been courting since we were 12 years old, we have lived
all our lives together. I am now 60 years old. Tracey is 61 years old.
3. We lived in Merthyr Tydfil all our lives and lived on the Gurnos Estate for 23 years,
until 1984. We decided to purchase the local Post office on the Gurnos Estate in 2008.
My wife and I married in 1981 and lived on the Gurnos Estate with our children for 3
years. We then decided to move from the Gurnos Estate to Dowlais which is around a
mile away, we still had close ties to the Gurnos due to my mother’s wife living there
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and still lives there to this present day. We looked at moving homes four/five years
ago because of the troubles we were having from customers of the Gurnos Post Office,
however, the situation that the Post Office put us in meant that we could not get a
mortgage because the Post Office had taken out a charging order on our home. We
wanted to move out of the area but it was not to be so we have stayed where we are.
Tracey and I have three girls, all of whom at one time worked at the post office. My
eldest daughter Danielle carried on with the training when my wife lost her father.
Tracey had three days training and Danielle had two days training at a post office
situated in Cardiff. The training consisted of more selling of Post Office Ltd products
than the Horizon system and how the system worked.
My two other daughters also worked at the Gurnos Post Office during the time
between August 2008 and June 2011. All staff were trained in-house by my wife,
daughter and myself.
Tracey worked in retail from the age of 16. She was a deputy manager of number of
shops and a key holder for The Body Shop and Dorothy Perkins. She had always
worked with people and likes to have a chat and get to know the customers; she has
always had jobs that she has been trusted in.
From 16 years old, I started an apprenticeship in engineering and I worked in the Coal
and Steelwork industry. I now work in a local college looking after apprenticeships as
an assessor for NVQ Level 3. I have worked all over the country in a number of
engineering disciplines for a number of large companies. I have been entrusted with
supervisory and management roles throughout my career.
During my time at the Gurnos Post Office, I was a manager of a waste treatment plant
for hospital waste for every hospital in Wales, which was a very demanding position
which would see me in work for 10 hours per day, then attending the post office after
a full day’s work, to help out.
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10.
11,
12.
13.
14.
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Tracey and I were looking for something to do long term which would benefit both of
us long term but also help my family. We knew the original subpostmaster at Gurnos
Post Office. I spoke to her and she said that she was thinking of selling the post office
as she had separated from her husband.
My wife and I sat down to speak about it on a number of occasions with our family. I
persuaded my wife to purchase the post office as I could see a long term future for
myself, my wife and our three daughters.
The plan was that I would stay in work at SRCL as an Engineering/Plant manager and
help as much as I could with the post office on Saturday and in the evenings through
the week. My wife would work Monday to Saturday and our daughters would also
work in the post office when required.
We were hoping that we would work in the post office until retirement and that our
daughters would take over running the post office; Tracey and I would then have a
more managerial role whilst our daughters ran the post office. We thought this would
benefit the whole family and we planned for our daughters to have an income out of
the post office. I thought the post office would work well around our family life.
My wife, Tracey Etheridge, was subpostmistress of Gurnos Post Office, 19 Chestnut
Way, Gurnos Estate, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales CF47 9SB from 28 August 2008 to 8 June
2011. I was heavily involved in running the post office alongside my wife.
At the time, I believed we were both subpostmasters of the Gurnos Post Office. We
both had three interviews with Post Office Limited and they told us that both of us
could have the post office. I had put the business plan for the post office together and
Tracey and I were a team. We were never told by the Post Office that we could not
both be postmasters. It had been explained that I would only be working part time in
the beginning to see what monthly remuneration we would receive from Post Office
Ltd. We were very lucky that I never gave my employment as a manager up for all the
time we owned the post office.
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15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
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All correspondence with Post Office was with me, there were a number of people that
I contact in Post Office Ltd through emails due to shortfall and other problems. These
were the South Wales manager, Colin Burnston, John Dixon and Debbie Mickleburgh,
district managers, and trainers Troy Gardener, Rhodri Jones, Paul Jones and Gaynor.
When we had letters for repayments or losses, they would come from Alan Winn, Paul
Kellett’s and Linda Write. The money for the purchase of the post office was paid by
me, so it did not make any sense to me when it came to an end when Post Office Ltd
said I had nothing to do with the post office and that I should not be allowed behind
the counter. This was said after I had training on the ATM by Paul Jones and all the
correspondence were through me. I was told that I was down as employed by Gurnos
Post Office during the final interview and all the times that my wife and I attended the
main Post Office Ltd depot in Cardiff.
I believe that my wife signed a short three-page document on or around 29 August
2008. I was not sure what that document was, and I did not receive a copy of it. I am
now aware that there is a detailed contract, we did not receive or sign a copy of this
detailed contract.
Mr Burnston sent us the three page contract because I was in constant
correspondence with him about the contract and wanted to see what was involved in
the contract that my wife had signed. Post Office decided themselves who was the
subpostmaster and never explained this situation to me or my wife.
On the day my wife signed the short document, I was there and Paul jones from Post
Office Ltd was with us, he said only one of us had to sign; we had to sign for money
left. Paul Jones then took me to train me on the ATM as he had been instructed to do
so by Post Office Ltd. I was involved in totalling monies at the end of day, daily, weekly
and end of month balancing and the ATM. I employed staff, sorted out pay, tax,
dockets Holidays, etc. I thought I was the part of the subpostmaster team.
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20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
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The pay we received from Post Office Ltd went into a joint business account with my
name in Nat West.
We operated a retail business from the premises selling greeting cards, toys, gloves,
umbrellas, nick knacks, bags, drawings and other miscellaneous items. It was a
profitable business, paying for two of the girls’ wages. We employed three assistants
in the post office, one of whom was our daughter Natalie. We tried to earn extra cash
from the retail business and we spent £5,000 on setting it up. The profit from the retail
business soon disappeared when Post Office Ltd started to deduct monies from our
monthly remuneration and eventually, I was using my own wages from SRCL to pay
staff, rent and utility bills.
Everything we had done was exactly following on from the previous subpostmistress;
the paper trail was spot on for the ATM every week, you would fill in the paperwork
for the amount of money that would be delivered, what you would put in the ATM
every week and what was dispensed every week. It was simple arithmetic and on
paper matched every week but the Horizon IT system it was never correct.
It was explained to me that I needed to put the information into the horizon system
after 4.35 pm, I would take a printout from the ATM after 4.35 pm and then put the
figures into the Horizon system, the outcome would be different every time because
you knew what money had been put into the ATM and what was dispensed. I did not
understand how Post Office Ltd could say the paper trail was wrong but that Horizon
was correct.
The Horizon system would never balance. I would repeatedly tell the Post Office Ltd
that it was not balancing, I have well over 200 emails explaining that we needed help
and additional training but it fell on deaf years.
I would meet John Dixon, my area manager, ona regular basis to sit down and tell him
the problems I was experiencing with the system and that there was money missing
and the answer that I would receive would always be that was not his department and
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26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
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it normally comes back after three months. On one occasion, he brought a pie chart
with him saying how many staff should be working in the post office and how long
they should be working, this was a complete waste of time. He was explaining that we
needed five people on a Monday morning but we could not afford for five people to
be working, he explained that you would need to have staff in for 15 minutes at a time
on busy mornings and then send staff home in the afternoons when it would be quiet
but also explaining that there had to be two people behind the counter at all time.
Danielle took over as a manager from the beginning, August 2008, with the three
original staff who we kept on due to the experience that they had gained deputy
manager had been employed for 12 years and the counter assistants 10 years and 3
years. There was some conflict between our daughter and the original staff. Rather
than just having three staff, we had five in total, which gave extra financial pressure.
However, my wife was not well enough to work which reduced the staffing levels to
4.
Danielle ran the post office for three/four months. I would attend the post office every
day after work and I would answer calls from staff during the day with any problems
that they had and contact the people who were required for assistance.
In 2008, I could see my daughter, Danielle, was getting more involved with the post
office and doing a very good job of running the post office; she had young children so
my wife looked after our grandson. I could see that Danielle enjoyed working at the
post office and was more confident with the daily running of the office and end of day
balancing. I would attend every evening to complete the ATM paperwork and fill the
machine.
When my wife went back to the post office (following her father’s death) we made
one of the original staff redundant, we were unable to run the post office with 5 staff
and myself (I never received any payment for the work that I did on a daily basis).
My wife returned to the post office from November — March. March was when we
received a letter for the first shortfall. We received correspondence from the Post
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Office that somebody must be taking money. This made me question my wife, staff
and family. Danielle had enough of the conflicts and arguments and she handed in her
notice due to the tension in the post office between the staff and myself. It all turned
very sour,
31. In February 2010, I refused to rollover because we had had another loss and there was
only 28 days in that month and we could rollover up to 31 days. I requested someone
come out and carry out an audit immediately to find the missing money in the
remaining days before the rollover. Post Office Ltd answer was to threaten us with a
fined of £2,000 for not rolling over on the 28"" Feb. However, I knew that we had up
to 31 days to roll over. This was the only way I could get people to talk from Post
Office.
TRAINING AND SUPPORT
32. I had training during my first week at the post office, I did not go to classroom training.
I had hands on training for 30 minutes every evening to complete the transactions on
the ATM with Paul Jones.
33. My training only covered the ATM and how to input the figures into the Horizon
system for the ATM. It did not cover Horizon for daily transactions. I had 30 minutes
of training every night for one week, so I had five hours with a Post Office trainer for
the ATM. The ATM, in my opinion, is pretty basic; what goes in, what is dispensed and
deduct one from the other.
34, I never received a password for Horizon and I always had to login as a guest because
ethe only input that I had was for the ATM.
35. My wife received training in Cardiff, however, it was explained to the Post Office
trainers in Cardiff that my daughter Danielle would be going in my wife’s place as her
father had passed away. There were things that we were coming across in the post
office that we did not know what to do as we lacked training.
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36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
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We requested training on a number of occasions and received half days of training
when a trainer became available. These took place on or around 5 February 2009 for
1 hour; 4 March 2009 for 1 hour; 22 April 2009 for 4 hours (trainer found the shortfall
while showing my wife and I the Horizon system) after a shortfall of £5,000 had arisen;
17 May 2009 for 1 hour; and 3 June 2009 for 1 day. When we tried to discuss the
shortfall with the trainer the answer that we received was that it looked as if there
was a problem with the ATM figures and that my wife had never been trained on the
ATM.
All of the training was very poor and inadequate; the trainers did not seem to know
the computer systems themselves. In fact, when the trainers came to our branch, they
would tell us that they were not adequately trained themselves. This happened with
every trainer we had. The trainers would not be able to do everything, they were
trained on specific areas of the Horizon system.
If you had a problem, you would not get a trainer for a week, there was never
something in place by the Post Office to send someone the next day.
The Post Office had specific personnel to carry out specific training. When they came
across a problem that they could not answer they would have to involve another
trainer who would have to come and show you how to deal with that issue later.
One trainer could not find the source of a loss of £5,000 and explained that it might
have been one of the staff stealing or that a customer might have stolen it by using a
coat hanger to take money out of the counter, to me this was farcical. Tracey and I do
not think either of these things happened. This shortfall happened when the deputy
manager, who had been there for years, left.
We requested training of some of my other assistants to my district managers, John
Dixon and Debbie Mickleburgh, and the South Wales manager, Colin Burnston, over
fifty times by email throughout my tenure, but this was never given.
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42. In the end, Mr Dixon finished working at the Post Office and I was then dealing with
Mr Burnston on a regular basis. Mr Burnston was an ignorant and nasty person, he
had a bad attitude and he would shout and scream ‘not my job’, ‘do as I tell you’; you
cannot talk to people the way he was talking to us. Mr Burnston got worse as time
went on. On one occasion I phoned him, he was swearing down the phone, blaming
my wife and saying the problems with the Horizon system were not happening to
anybody else, we were the only post office in the UK who were losing money.
HELPLINE
43. We estimate that we contacted the helpline 2-3 times per week in relation to alleged
shortfalls and/or balancing and 2-3 times per month in relation to equipment or
hardware errors. This level of contact stayed consistent throughout our tenure.
44, During August, September and October 2008, the post office was pretty consistent,
we never had any major shortfall. In 2009 it was chaos. We never false accounted, I
would explain what the Horizon system was telling us and what the print out would
read, we would tell the helpline what the shortfalls were and that we wanted
someone to come to our branch to find the shortfall or carry out an audit. We would
settle the alleged shortfall by putting money in ourselves, but we would phone first to
find out how to rectify the problem, every person that we spoke to had a different
procedure to correct any shortfalls.
45. On one occasion, the helpline said to take money out of stamps and put in cash to
rectify the shortfall, I was thinking that we cannot do that as we had not sold the
stamps but she explained this was common practice to do this.
46. My biggest problem with the helpline was that it was so difficult to get them out to
our branch to help us and we would be told that they would call us back in 24 hours,
which never happened or they would explain the money will return into the system
within 3 months.
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47.
48.
49.
50.
$1.
52.
53.
54.
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We were advised by the helpline that all losses would return within three months and
to create a ZZ account, even the Post Office trainers had never heard of ZZ account.
The helpline advisors told us how to do create the ZZ account but not what it was.
The helpline advisors told us to carry out various processes on Horizon, which did not
work, at which point the advisors would say that they had not given that advice each
advisor had different advice for the same problems that you came across. Often
different advisors would give different advice in respect of the same issues.
Within 24-48 hours after calling the helpline, money would be missing again.
On another occasion, when we had a £10,000 shortfall with the ATM, I spoke to a
helpline advisor called Hilary. We had £10,000 in the safe for the Horizon system and
I explained that we had the money for the shortfall in the safe but it was not the Bank
of Irelands money for the ATM, it was counter money but our counter money had
balanced correctly, so we have an additional £10,000 in the safe. I would not put the
money from the safe in the Horizon system under the ATM until the Post Office
guaranteed that the £10,000 shortfall would not come back. Hilary gave her word but
in three days the shortfall was back.
Because of arguments with my family and wife, we put everything in a diary as a back-
up; we wrote every time we spoke to the Post Office, helpline or about issues with
machinery. I would look at the diary in evening when I arrived and work around the
issues we had experienced during that day.
Every one of our staff was contacting the helpline and it was all going into the diary.
The helpline advisors would say that they would call you back within 24 hours of
notifying them of an issue but they never would.
The Bank of Ireland would also give different advice to the helpline and would give the
wrong audit trail information. I was ringing the Bank of Ireland constantly, 2-3 times a
week, but they were even worse than helpline. They all passed the responsibility back
and forth between Bank of Ireland and the helpline.
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55. We feel that the supposed advice and support given by the helpline directly
contributed to the losses we incurred. Losses doubled and whatever the helpline told
us to do would not help, but actually would make things worse.
56. The helpline advisors were just reading the manual.
57. I was told constantly by helpline that it was only us having these problems.
58. Tracey would ring the helpline and they would say the shortfalls would be clear now
and it would clear, however, I would come back and more money would be missing
and then I would ring the helpline back and they would say they have already told me
what to do.
59. When we attempted to rectify the alleged shortfall following helpline advice, the
shortfall would duplicate.
60. If the shortfall did not change, I would then email Mr Burnston saying that we have
followed advice but are still at a loss, I did this to keep a paper trail and because we
did not know and understand what was happening and I did not trust Post Office Ltd.
SHORTFALLS
61. 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.
62. ! would estimate that throughout our positions in the branch, we paid (or the Post
Office deducted) in excess of £7,000 out of our monthly renumeration.
63. In 2009, I took a National Federation of Sub postmasters Union representative to
Cardiff to see Colin Burnston and John Dixon in the main Post Office Ltd building in
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64.
65.
66.
67.
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Cardiff, we met in Colin Burnston’s office to discuss the alleged shortfalls. Even the
Union representative, Chris Lewis, said to me this is not the first time these things have
happened with the Post Office.
From March 2009 until 2011, after I went to Mr Burnston with a Union representative,
Mr Burnston decided to take £240 out of our salary every month until we finished
paying for shortfalls. The Post Office said they would keep deducting until we paid
back all the shortfalls, which we could never do as it was shortfall upon shortfall nearly
every month; the debt just kept accumulating.
During the 2010 Christmas period, a lot more money went missing. The Post Office
then increased the deductions per month to £540, these deductions lasted for
three/four months. My family and I decided to close the post office until Post Office
Ltd would come and discuss the missing money, they never came out to our post
office. After closing the post office there were a number of angry customers that had
contacted Post Office Ltd to see why the post office was closed. We had the police
attend our home to ask us to open the post office back up due to the tension in the
Gurnos Estate. The Post Office dropped the deductions back to £240 every month if
we opened back up.
Small shortfalls of up to £100 arose almost every week. We would try to resolve them
by calling the helpline but we were constantly given different advice by different
people and were unable to resolve the shortfalls. Post Office would send a letter
saying what we owed. I asked them for paper trail and they would send explanations
that you would have to be a mathematician to understand. I would ask Post Office to
explain the letters but they would not.
These shortfalls in excess of £100 include, but are not limited to, the following:
14.04.09 - £500
13.08.09 - £1,640
14.08.09 - £2,350
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68.
69.
70.
71.
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18.08.09 - £930
01.03.10 - £9,002.80
30.04.10 - £11,298.23
12.03.10 - £620
16.06.10 - £4,270
04.10.10 - £4,370
13.08.10 - £10,895.47
01.07.10 - £2,006.05
01.04.11 - £3,650
This is a total of £51,532.55 and, to be clear, this does not represent the full extent of
the shortfalls that were attributed to us.
We became aware of our supposed "contractual" obligation to make good any alleged
losses after talking to the NFSP about our first shortfall, although we had not actually
entered into the contract.
Money was taken straight from our wages, the only time we paid by cash was to put
cash into the till if the alleged shortfall was under £100, we used my own personal
wages and money from the retail business. I was using my wages to cover branch fees
and I would pay staff from my own wages. The monthly renumeration for the post
office was between £1,700 a month up to £2,300 on a good month, depending on
what sales we had. After we paid the staff’s salaries out of renumeration, Tracey's
wage was only £600 per month after working 40-hour weeks, which was less than
minimum wage of £3.46 per hour without us working overtime to balance. I would
average 10.5 hours per week and receive no pay from the day we purchased the post
office to the day Post Office Ltd took it of us.
We were not aware of any formal procedure for disputing alleged shortfalls. We did
not know or suspect that our Horizon accounts could be accessed remotely without
our knowledge or approval. Although we did not have to settle these losses
immediately, the Post Office regularly deducted sums from our remuneration.
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72. The deductions varied over time and are subject to disagreement but, by way of
example, we received the following demands:
i. A letter of 06.04.09 stated that deductions of £245.95 immediately and sums of
£245 a further two times would be made to cover shortfall losses. However, this
just carried on as we incurred more losses.
ii. A letter of 13.07.09 stated that deductions of £536.78 and a further £536 for eight
months would be made. I could not afford this and shut the post office down after
paying £536.78.
iii. A letter of 07.02.11 stated that deductions of £344 and £344.53 would be made.
iv. Aletter of 11.03.11 stated that deductions of £412.47 and £500 seventeen further
times would be made. This never materialised because we shut down the post
office, I may have paid this figure one or two times.
73. My wife's tenure (and my position) ended in June 2011 so not all of the deductions set
out in the last letter were made. However, my recollection is that a deduction of some
sort was made in every month of our appointment following the letter of 06.04.09.
74, We were given no option. Post Office took money out straight away every month and
we could not do anything about it.
AUDIT AND INVESTIGATION
75; An audit took place in or around March 2009. My wife had requested one because we
were down by approximately £500-£700. The audit found a shortfall of about £200,
which was deducted from the monthly renumeration.
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76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
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There were a lot of factors that would cause problems. We were always told to do a
roll over at 4.30 pm, look at the information at 5.30 pm and in a matter of 24 hours
the shortfall reduced. The Post Office said the shortfall amounts were due to the time
we did the roll over and that we had to wait until 4.30pm, but they would not explain
why the timing made a difference; all the figures did not change so it did not make
sense why the time you print out the balance would make a difference to the shortfall
amount if no one had taken any money out or if you had balanced the monies, once
the figures were put in to the Horizon system anything else that would have been
dispensed would have gone onto the next day’s totals.
We requested several audits during our appointment because of shortfalls, but the
only other audit that took place occurred on or around 2 December 2010. In the run
up to this audit there had been a shortfall of approximately £10,000.
We spoke to Hilary (a Post Office helpline advisor), about the £10,000 shortfall which
came from the ATM. She told us that if we added up the money and stick it in Horizon
then she would guarantee that the Post Office would take the shortfall off. We put
this amount into the till to balance the system but the shortfall came back in three
days for no apparent reason.
We would not be able to get through to same person, the helpline said ‘you are doing
something wrong’ and we said that we needed someone to come to our branch. If
Post Office could not answer our question, it was our fault, this put something in the
back of mind of ‘are we really doing something wrong’. I would question my wife and
she would say check the figures. If you put a figure in the system three times, you
would get three different outcomes, it was never the same.
My wife and I had been in touch with Mr Burnston of the Post Office for a long period
of time about the shortfalls and our requests for an audit. Eventually, we were so
concerned about the situation that we closed the post office until an audit was carried
out, and placed a sign on the window saying that any customers who were unhappy
with the closure should contact Mr Burnston; I did this out of frustration as we would
have queues of hundreds of people waiting and either myself or my wife were getting
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81.
82.
83.
84,
85.
86.
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the blame, my wife and I were well known in the area and our relationship with the
community changed, people would look at us and would say “they are the people that
closed the post office and stole money from the post office”.
Mr Burnston had a hundred calls within an hour, the police got involved and said that
we could not do this and asked us to reopen the post office. The Post Office told us
that this was a breach of our contract and said we should not shut unless we told
them. I had emailed Mr Burnston on Friday, explaining our intensions but had no reply.
The Post Office finally agreed to carry out the audit.
We had been given notice of this audit because we had requested it. Two auditors
were present. They eventually left at approximately 2.00pm. The auditors seemed to
be fair people, there was one auditor for the ATM and one auditor for the Horizon
system. I was told that Post Office could not have one auditor who covered both ATM
and Horizon because they had not been trained to carry out both.
The audit found a shortfall of £549.44, which was added to the sum of £9,680.74 that
the Post Office said was already owing, leaving a total debt at this time of £10,230.18.
We continued to pay this amount off in instalments. We were provided with a copy of
the auditor's report.
I believe that one more audit took place and found a shortfall, but I cannot recall the
date of this audit or the shortfall amount.
An audit took place at the end of our appointment, and I believe that the civil
proceedings brought against my wife, following our resignation, relate to the total
amount the Post Office found to be outstanding.
I have not seen a report relating to the final audit or any records disclosing the results
of the Post Office's defunding of the branch, and this was not submitted to Second
Sight either. We filled a load of paperwork for Second Sight and the Second Sight
investigator said the Post Office have no proof of the alleged shortfalls, I told the
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investigator that we are still paying and he said I do not know where the Post Office
are getting the figures from.
SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION
87. Although significant shortfalls had arisen, we were paying back a considerable sum
per month. The Post Office was also the second biggest in Merthyr Tydfil and
whenever it had been closed, e.g., for an audit, people would become very angry and
contact the Post Office about it.
88. My wife was never suspended. The Post Office would never want to close our post
office and it was never mentioned our post office would be closed because it was so
busy, Post Office Ltd only mentioned that they would deduct our wages.
89. My wife’s appointment as subpostmistress ended when the Post Office transferred
the branch to Cool Foods, an off-site purchaser. We did not know about this and did
not care less; Post Office must have been negotiating behind our back.
90. We had advertised the post office for sale; a local councillor; GRO; was willing to
pay the full asking price of £100,000 and I thought it would be sorted within next 3
months. We did not think there would be a problem with the sale. However, Post
Office Ltd stopped his process and passed the post office branch over to a local
business, Cool Foods. We were not consulted about this. We were told by a customer
in Cool Foods that the owner was having a post office put in.
91. If it were not for the Post Office's conduct in relation to the shortfalls, we would not
have resigned. If we had no shortfalls, I think we would still have been at the post
office now and have a comfortable and lovely lifestyle.
92. We resigned because Mr Burnston told us that we would have to give three months’
notice of our resignation in order to sell the post office t and that our
resignation would not be accepted unless an acceptable buyer had been found. I
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why:
93. We contacted Mr Burnston to withdraw our resignation, because he had explained
that we could do so if we had not found a buyer, and we were told that this was not
possible. Tracey and I were forced to resign. Within weeks the post office was
relocated to Cool Foods. I thought this was unusual because it took me and my wife
almost 12 months to purchase the post office, whereas the transfer to Cool Foods
seemed to take a matter of weeks.
94, We received no pay when the business moved to Cool Foods. We were told by Post
Office Ltd that we could no longer run our post office.
CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
95. The Post Office pursued civil proceedings against my wife for the recovery of the
alleged shortfalls. After Post Office Ltd took us to court in 2011, they obtained a
judgment against my wife for the total sum of £11,209.81, in respect of which we paid
£30.94 per month up until the final judgement in the Group Litigation in 2019. We
paid a total of £9,930 from 2009 to 2020. Proceedings had been issued for the sum of
£10,458.36 initially.
96. Post Office Ltd obtained a final charging order in respect of this sum plus costs of £264
and further interest on 29 June 2012 and have a restriction on our property securing
the outstanding debt.
97. I largely handled the proceedings on my wife's behalf because she was so unwell due
to her mental health. The losses were like a red flag, I was panicking every day and
Post Office Ltd put it in my head that someone was taking money, I started looking at
my family. The suspicion was playing tricks on mind, my wife and I went through a hell
of time.
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98. My wife was off work due to her mental health so I contacted Post Office; we tried to
claim sickness pay for my wife through the post office and we put a number of sick
notes in, however, the Post Office refused to pay. Tracey was off work for six weeks
with no pay. This added to my stress and worsened my mental health as there was
financial pressure and additional hours for me to work at the post office.
99. I got in touch with Mr Burnston again, he said the best option was to get another
subpostmaster whilst Tracey was off sick. However, we would have to pay them and
the postmaster would get a monthly pay and £1,000 out of my own money which we
could not afford.
LOSSES
100. We repaid not less than £7,000 during our appointment. We were led to believe that
we had no alternative but to pay the shortfalls.
101. We lost the value of the business (post office and retail shop). We paid £45,000 for
the purchase of the Post Office business and £5,000 for the purchase of stock. We
paid £25,000 for renovation/fit out at the branch.
102. When the post office was transferred to an off-site purchaser, rather than retained
within the premises which we had a lease of, the value of our investment was
significantly reduced. The post office was valued at £100,000 at the time of our
resignation.
103. ‘If it were not for the events that occurred, our future plans were for our family to still
be in employment when we were coming to retirement age. When we took over, the
previous subpostmaster was earning £54,000 per year so I know the branch had good
earning potential. When we took over, the income dropped to around £36,000 per
year gross, and as a result of the constant shortfalls we were taking home an average
of £600 per month net.
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104. I did not hold a full-time position within the branch but I expected my wife to continue
to run it for further 15 to 17 years. I was employed in an alternative full-time position
throughout the time during which my wife was subpostmistress.
105. Having a judgment entered against my wife on our house, and entering into an IVA,
caused considerable distress and reputational damage for the two of us. People would
treat us differently and would approach us in public and accuse us of stealing money
from the Post Office. Some of them were friends, the majority were people we were
dealing with daily in the post office. We could not go to town without someone saying
something, people made comments on little things like the food we bought.
106. I entered into an IVA as a result of the shortfalls because the only way out of debt was
through an IVA. I had never ever done anything like that before. The IVA was managed
by Pay Plan for a total amount of £53,000. This came to an end approximately two
years ago. The creditors were mainly NatWest, Barclays and RBS with whom we had
credit cards and business overdrafts in my name.
107. The debts were incurred mainly to pay staff wages and keep the shop afloat. I had to
borrow money off my family. We currently have low credit ratings meaning that we
are unable to obtain a mortgage.
108. We used approximately £10,000 of our savings to keep the shop afloat. We are paying
£30 per month towards the judgment debt, but we think this is only the interest
because the sum does not seem to be lowering. During our appointment, my wife had
a nervous breakdown as a result of Post Office's conduct and I promoted one of the
assistants, Lindsey, to branch manager in her absence.
109. During this time a shortfall of approximately £3,600 arose. Lindsey said she was aware
of this and had been hiding the shortfall but had not stolen the money. The Post Office
said that theft was the only explanation and we put this to the manager. Lindsey
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offered to pay the money back but the Post Office then took the branch back and she
claimed to have been unfairly dismissed.
110. The case went to the Employment Tribunal and we had to pay £2,000 damages and
£1,700 legal costs. Lindsey was a very close friend at the time, but we have not spoken
since. Lindsey was the same age as my daughter and was brought up with her in
school; we were close friends with her parents but none of us talk now.
111. We were still in the post office at this time. Lindsey walked out and did not come back
because she was being accused of taking money she had not taken. My wife was not
working at the time as she was unwell. I had spoken to Lindsey and she said that she
would take a loan out and put the money back on Wednesday. However, on Thursday
we went to the police about money missing, the police took a statement from myself
and Lindsey, they said because the missing money was to do with the crown they could
not do anything about it. Following this, Lindsey claimed unfair dismissal.
112. When we resigned from the branch, we could no longer afford to pay the rent on the
premises because the retail side of the business made very little money. We had no
choice but to stop paying the rent and the landlord, Merthyr Valley Homes, took me
to court.
113. A judgment was made against me for approximately £1,100, in respect of which we
have been paying £49.50 per month with four or five months remaining. As with the
civil proceedings brought by the Post Office, I largely handled the Employment
Tribunal and the proceedings relating to the unpaid rent by myself because my wife
was so unwell. Without the post office it was pointless keeping the retail business so
I stopped the shop and I stopped paying rent. I had argued that as soon as I moved
out and told the landlord I could not afford the rent they moved somebody in, but a
judgment was still made against me.
HUMAN IMPACT
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114. There were initially no issues with the post office, until Christmas when a £700
shortfall occurred. Both the area manager, Colin Burnston, and the dedicated helpline
were incredibly dismissive when we asked for help, and insisted that we “rollover” the
balance.
115. In March 2009, the frequency and intensity of the alleged shortfalls began to increase,
becoming £5,000 to £10,000 per week. When we raised the issues with the helpline
again, they became accusatory and stated that someone must have been stealing
money.
116. I estimate that we had to pay £150,000 of our own funds in order to cover the
purchase price, refurbishment, IVA, wages and court costs and alleged shortfalls at the
threat of legal action if we did not comply with the Post Office’s demands to pay.
117. I had kept my job with with a waste management company, but I played an increasing
role at the post office as the alleged shortfalls and other issues with Horizon took a
toll on my wife. My wife’s health seriously deteriorated during this period.
118. The alleged shortfalls had a huge impact on my wife’s health. She was unable to cope
with stress and anxiety caused by her experience.
119. The post office has always been a business of its own, in its own premises. So, when
it was put it into Cool Foods it did not go down well with the customers. I can
understand the community’s frustration when the post office left as it was the only
place, they could get money and now they had to travel to get to the nearest post
office.
120. We did not take part in mediation in 2013, but were both party to the group litigation
against Post Office Ltd. As a result, we are excluded from the Historic Shortfall Scheme.
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121. People started going to the post office in Dowlais village, where we live, and they would
bump into my wife, this would put Tracey back mentally weeks. The abuse my wife has
had has been horrendous and life threatening.
122. My abuse was more of a joke, for example, if I got new car or went on holiday people
would say that it is from the money I stole. On one occasion, a boy came in with knife
threatening my staff, he put a fire in the waste paper bin and put it on the counter, the
police would not come in. There was only one entrance to the post office, there should
have been a back entrance but there was not, there should have been two means of
egress for Health & Safety reasons.
123. My way of thinking was that people/staff were taking money from our post office
because Post Office Ltd kept saying that someone has taken money. When Tracey took
an overdose, my suspicion went from my wife and went onto someone else. The Post
Office claimed the shortfalls were never Horizon’s fault and were always human error
or theft.
124, The consequences of having to pay the alleged shortfalls were that we were not
receiving enough money to pay our staff, our utility bills and the rent for the premises.
This money then had to be taken from my savings and my wages from my full-time
employment.
125. We lost all the savings we had saved for years. We even spent £25,000 on renovating
the post office. The standard of Post Office Limited required for a counter was that it
had to be a fortress counter and I had to pay £12,000 on a glass fortress counter from
one of Post Office’s suppliers. I could have had the counter for £7,000 but the Post
Office had a list of who we could buy from.
126. I had to assume more responsibility in the Post Office after a harrowing experience
where Tracey overdosed on prescription medication and was rushed to hospital on a
Friday evening.
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127. On that Friday, we were short on money again; it built up and built up and Tracey
could not cope. When I came home, I did not realize and I thought Tracey was sleeping
on the couch but she did not wake up and start talking. I noticed the tablet boxes and
I tried to wake Tracey but she was floppy, we spoke and I called 999 and my youngest
daughter. The ambulance arrived at the bottom of the street and the paramedics took
Tracey in straight away.
128. My daughter took my wife in to the hospital as Tracey did not want me to go in with
her. Tracey had her stomach pumped and she was taken to a psychiatrist where the
blame was firmly put on the post office and my behaviour because of so much money
missing.
129. I felt awful. My wife and I have been together for as long as I can remember and to
be told my behaviour caused her overdose felt terrible. It was my behaviour because
I was trying to find missing money and I would be at work at 6 am and then I went to
the post office and I would be there until 10pm on occasions when money was missing.
It took a toll on me and the only way for me to get rid of my anxiety and temper was
to take it out on others.
130. The hospital wanted to keep my wife in but I did not want them to, I wanted to be
with her, this was all my fault. In late 2010, my family was starting to split. Tracey was
very very unwell, she tried to go back to the post office but she would breakdown, we
had no one else to run the post office by this time.
131. My wife has been ill since 2010. It is now 2022 and she is still not right; she suffers
terrible anxiety attacks and her nerves are terrible. Tracey is on a number of different
tablets for her condition and has been on these tablets since we started to have
shortfalls, She still breaks down and if she sees anything to do with the Post Office, it
sets her off crying. I cannot understand her internal pain, I cannot see her mental
health issues and I cannot relate to them or understand them. This has put more strain
on my daughters as they come to see her more and more due to the deterioration of
her health. Tracey does not go out of the house. She spends more time in bed than
downstairs.
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132. All my children worked at the post office and everyone was accused of taking money by
me. The stress on the family was enormous. We had local people calling us thieves and
stones thrown at the windows. This was a scary experience; we were sat in the front
room and could see people running down the street shouting ‘thieves’.
133. The post office was taken from my wife and I but also from my family. The post office
was purchased to be an income for my whole family, instead it nearly ruined me and all
my family.
134. My whole family have been devastated by the false accusations made by Post Office
Ltd.
135. My wife has still not recovered from the stress and anxiety caused by the accusations
and has not been able to work since this has occurred.
136. My wife would not leave the house after returning from the judge’s chambers when
Post Office Limited’s solicitor won the case and took the injunction out on the house.
We have been unable to sell the property to move to another area.
137. How my wife and I are still together is a miracle, we argued constantly about money
missing and who had taken the money. We dismissed staff and family; we did not speak
to our eldest daughter for over 12 months after she left the post office because of the
reoccurring problems of money missing. At that time, only my wife and two daughters
were involved in working at the post office. I was lining them up wondering who took
the money as I had not been there all day. We were constantly told by the Post Office
that we were only ones having shortfalls and that no one else having trouble with ATM
or machinery. It took time to fix our relationships.
138. My daughter still blames me for buying the post office and all problems with the
Etheridge family. We are a hot-headed family and we get on better now, but it has taken
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us a long time to get back to how we were before the purchase of the post office.
139, The Gurnos was the second largest post office in Merthyr Tydfil and we would have
hundreds of customers per day. It is a close community and they thought that we had
closed the post office because we had stolen money. We knew everybody there and
my mother-in-law still lives there. That was a big part of the reason why we wanted the
Gurnos post office, as we knew everybody and we thought that we would not have
problems. The Gurnos is its own little town and the post office was the main source of
income in the area.
CONCLUSION
140. I do not think our family would be as we are now if I had not purchased the post office.
We were a close-knit family but we are not anymore. If I see my eldest daughter once a
week that is a lot, I see my middle daughter about once a month. I see my youngest
daughter twice a week. She and my wife became close as she was there when my wife
overdosed, and went in the ambulance with her to the hospital.
141. If I had not spent what I had on the post office, I would have retired now but I now will
work until I am 67 years old, I am also still paying the mortgage due to purchasing the
post office and borrowing money to get back on our feet. If I had not purchased the
post office I would not be paying a mortgage now.
142. My wife and I still have bad days, we argue and talk about the post office.
143. For what Post Office Ltd have done to us and what we have received, it is atrocious and
diabolical for the pain and suffering we have gone through.
144. If I mention Post Office Ltd to my wife or if she sees it on the TV all the bad memories
flood back, we do not like talking about it but I try to keep up with what is happening.
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145. I know Post Office Ltd have done wrong and lied, what they have done to my wife, family
and myself was not worth it. They have ruined us and impacted on my wife’s health.
We did not expect to have experiences this in our lifetime.
146. I would like to see someone from the Post Office from directors to area managers take
responsibility for what they have done to all these people.
147. The money I have spent and lost I would like back for myself and my wife. My wife has
not worked since 2011 due to ill health and will not work for the rest of her life due to
Post Office Ltd and I do not want to be working until I am 67 years old.
148. I want someone to be taken to court like I was, and to be made to feel as little as we
were made to feel, at least the top people should be taken to court.
149. The biggest thing for us is what the 555 have paid for legal costs to take on the Post
Office, it would be nice to have something back that would make us feel like we could
pay our house off.
STATEMENT OF TRUTH
I believe the contents of this statement to be true.
Gareth
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