WITNO03320100
WITNO3320100
Witness Name: Mr Arun Bhanote
Statement No.:WITN0332_01
Exhibits: None
Dated: 26 March 2022
THE POST OFFICE HORIZON INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF MR ARUN BHANOTE
I, MR ARUN BHANOTE 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 PRIOR TO APPOINTMENT AS SPM
2. I am from Walsaw, in the West Midlands and I live with my wife, who I have been
married to since April 2009 along with m nolyear old son.
3. Prior to my appointment as subpostmaster I was living in Arizona with my relatives,
my cousins and I was training to be a pilot.
4. My plan was to get my certification to fly commercial aircrafts and gather enough
experience to qualify as a pilot. I had dreamt of being a pilot since the age of 15.
Page 1 of 12
WITNO03320100
WITNO3320100
My father was a Subpostmaster, he was appointed in 1991 and ran his post office for
around 11 years.
In around August 2002 I received a phone call from my sister informing me that they
had been visited by auditors and that the auditors were suspending her and closing
the post office due to alleged theft and fraud.
At this time, I was still in Arizona doing my flight training, and my dad had gone away
to India for a wedding. The Post Office were aware of this because my dad had
arranged for the remuneration to go to my sister while he was away, as she was
running the post office while he was away.
As my father was away, my sister called me for help; so I had to fly home to help her
because the post office had been closed, which meant my family were losing out on
income.
The family post office was closed for two weeks, with my father being accused of theft
and fraud. After two weeks the Post Office bought in a temporary subpostmaster to
run the branch. The temporary subpostmaster received 75% of the remuneration, but
my father still had to cover the costs of the running the office, i.e. the bills, electricity
etc. The temporary subpostmaster continued running the branch for around 10
months to 1 year.
Following the Post Office’s accusation against my father, when he returned from his
trip, he was arrested and kept for 24 hours in the police station and then released the
following day. My father was never allowed back into his post office after his arrest
and suspension. He appealed this but his appeal was refused.
Page 2 of 12
WITNO03320100
WITNO3320100
11. As a result, I decided to apply for the role of subpostmaster. Eventually I secured an
interview with the Post Office. My interview was conducted by a woman called Irene
Bortowski, I believe she was a contracts manager. Ms Bortowski was very
understanding and she offered me the position of subpostmaster at my father’s
branch.
12. I was a Subpostmaster of Langley Branch Post Office, 18 High Street B69 4SL from
1 May 2003 to 21 January 2005. I took over the role of subpostmaster from a
temporary subpostmaster, who had been in place between September 2002 and April
2003 following the termination of my father, Mr R Bhantone.
13. I operated a retail business from the premises, a small shop selling stationery, cards
and confectionary.
TRAINING AND SUPPORT
14. The training I received from the Post Office was, in my opinion, absolutely useless and
there was nothing that covered what to do in the case of shortfalls. The training was
completely inadequate for the job we, as subpostmasters, were preparing for.
15. I attended one day of training at Solihull post office. A trainer from the Post Office
then also came to shadow me in the branch. The trainer was supposed to be there for
one full week, but by Wednesday afternoon of that week he said, “you seem to know
what you are doing” and he didn’t come back after that. However, even when he was
in branch the he would take 90 minute lunches, so he was hardly there as it was.
16. I received no further training from the post office beyond this.
Page 3 of 12
WITNO03320100
WITNO3320100
HELPLINE
17. I contacted the Helpline more than five times per week. When I called the helpline, I
was always put on hold for long periods of time, and when I did get through I was
never given any real help.
18. In relation to shortfalls, I was often told “to make good the shortfalls because that is
what it says in the subpostmaster contract”. I asked the helpline whether there was a
fault in my Horizon system and the helpline said “no there is no fault in the system,
the system cannot be wrong”.
19. At the time I had been in contact with the Subpostmaster at the Rood End and
Causeway branches, and they told me they were also experiencing problems.
20. At first, after what the helpline told me, I thought it was just me that was experiencing
problems with Horizon but after speaking with the other subpostmasters, I knew the
helpline were telling everyone the same thing.
21. The Post Office sent out a Fujitsu engineer whose name was Indy. He attended my
branch about 20 times during my tenure. Indy said that the system was always
showing problems and he didn’t know why the Post Office were sending him, because
he was not a software engineer, he only knew how to deal with the hardware side of
things.
SHORTFALLS
22. 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.
Page 4 of 12
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
WITNO03320100
WITNO3320100
I would estimate that throughout my position in the branch I paid approximately
£15,000 to the Post Office in relation to shortfalls.
In January 2004 I settled a shortfall of £7,500 in cash. I paid £2,500 immediately and
then carried forward the remaining shortfall in the accounts over a three month
period. I made good the shortfall in cash with my own money and money, which I had
to borrow from my parents.
In around November/ December 2004 I settled a shortfall of £600 in cash. I made out
a cheque to the Post Office to settle this and balanced the accounts. I then received
an error notice, which usually takes a few weeks to come through but this one came
though immediately which I thought was unusual. I specifically remember the shortfall
happened around Christmas time because I covered the shortfall using my own
money, that was meant to be my Christmas money.
In June 2004 I settled a shortfall of £3,000 in cash. I carried forward the shortfall in the
accounts over a period of time, whilst I made good the shortfall paying in cash with
my own money. The Post Office informed me that the reason for this shortfall was
because I had over claimed on pensions.
I also remember having problems in relation to foreign exchange where I was told
there was a shortfall. I called the helpline and informed them that this was impossible
because the cash was physically in branch. Unsurprisingly, the advice I was given was
that the system cannot be wrong and it was up to me to make good the shortfall.
On 6 January 2005 I settled a shortfall of £2,875 in cash using money I borrowed from
a friend. I was audited a few weeks later on 21 January 2005, which was my closing
audit. At the time I was only short a small amount, approximately £27.11, as such I
paid this in cash to ensure the account balanced when it was closed.
Page 5 of 12
WITNO03320100
WITNO3320100
29. I was later pursued for the same amount by Post Office who issued civil proceedings
against me. I informed the Post Office that this could not be possible because I had
settled the shortfall and the account was balanced on the day I left the post office.
30. Eventually, I received a letter from Post Office (Chesterfield, head office) which said
that the error was on Post Office’s part and the claim was discontinued.
AUDIT AND INVESTIGATION
31. During my time as subpostmaster, my branch was audited about five times. Each time
the auditors turned up without any notice and the branch was closed to allow the post
office auditors to carry out their audit. I found the auditors attitudes odd, they
behaved as though they were part of “M/5”, and they acted very aloof.
32. I remember the details surrounding my first audit quite clearly. I was not present at
the time because I was on holiday. In general, I suspect that the Post Office
deliberately conducted audits when they knew I would not be in the branch, as they
had obviously seen my requests for holiday leave
33. I was not given any advance notice of the audit, nor was I provided with a copy of the
auditor's report. I was told I was approximately £890 down but then the auditors
returned a week later and said they had forgotten to count some second class stamps
worth £350, but that didn’t seem to change the fact that I was £890 down.
34, I got the impression that the auditors knew that there were accounting problems with
the Horizon system but they just passed the buck.
35. I remember experiencing various audits during my tenure as subpostmaster. The
audits in general and my impression was that they were a complete waste of time.
36. The auditors would often give ridiculous reasons as to why I was supposedly
experiencing shortages, such as my coin trays were “in the wrong place inside the till”
Page 6 of 12
WITNO03320100
WITNO3320100
or, the stamps were “not in the right order’. These were just irrelevant things which
could not possibly explain the kind of shortfalls I was experiencing. The auditors did
not give credible answers to any of the problems that I was experiencing nor did they
offer any support to help me find the root of the problem.
37. My closing audit took place on 21 January 2005. Prior to this audit, a few weeks earlier,
I had settled a shortfall of £2,875 by borrowing money from a friend. I was aware that
this would be my final audit because I had made the decision to resign from the Post
Office.
38. At the final audit I was only a small amount short, £27.11. I paid this into the post
office and the account balanced before it was closed. However, a few weeks later,
after leaving the branch, the Post Office issued civil proceedings against me to recover
the £2,875, even though I had settled the amount a few weeks before.
39. I requested an audit of my branch, but the request was not fulfilled by the Post Office.
I asked several times for the paperwork and I was told that any paperwork was Post
Office property and under copyright could not be disclosed to me.
SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION
40. During my tenure as subpostmaster I was threatened by the Post Office with
suspension. However, the Post Office did not suspend me, I resigned from my position
on 21 January 2005.
41, I could no longer put up with the incompetence of the Post Office, its staff, and its
failure to provide any help and/or support over the alleged losses in my branch.
42. I was threatened with suspension and termination several times during my tenure as
subpostmaster by way of letter. The Post office tried to convince me to sell my branch
to Angela, the temporary subpostmistress who ran the branch prior to my
Page 7 of 12
WITNO03320100
WITNO3320100
appointment as subpostmaster. The Post Office said, “Why don’t you sell to Angela,
we already have all of her details and we’ll give you £32,000”. This took place around
September 2004 at which time I certain that I would not accept the Post Office’s offer
and I decided I would sell the branch myself.
43. I eventually found a buyer which was the local supermarket opposite the branch. I put
a lot of work in to drawing up a business plan with the owner of the supermarket and
I sold the goodwill to him.
CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
44, The Post Office issued a civil claim against me in the Walsall County Court for a
disputed shortfall of £2,875. This was the amount I had settled with the Post Office
before my closing audit which took place when I resigned from the branch.
45. The claim was eventually discontinued because the Post Office later admitted that the
fault was on their side, and I had in fact paid the money in January 2005 before my
final audit.
46. The Post Office did not pursue criminal proceedings against me.
LOSSES
47. I paid in the region of £15,000 to the Post Office in relation to alleged shortfalls in my
branch. I was believed that I had no alternative but to repay these shortfalls.
48. My business lost its value, I eventually had to sell the post office at a significant
undervalue. My parents advised me to get out of running the post office because had
become such a nightmare. As such, I ended up selling it to a local independent
supermarket for £59,000.
Page 8 of 12
WITNO03320100
WITNO3320100
49. Due to my father’s termination I had to take over the branch at short notice. At the
time I was training to be a pilot; my father had paid $20,000 for me to get my graduate
pilot’s licence, which I had to give up immediately when the Post Office terminated
my father’s contract. We did not get this money back.
50. I had planned to keep the post office for at least another 5 years and build up the
business. I had plans to expand the shop, install a photo booth and add other services
to the branch such as vehicle tax. However, I lost out on the opportunity to do this.
HUMAN IMPACT
51. I suffered serious problems with the Horizon system including alleged shortfalls. I had
to pay more than £15,000 of my own money in order to pay these alleged shortfalls
back to the Post Office. When I sought help from the Post Office, none was provided,
and I was wrongfully pursued for an alleged shortfall that I had in fact already paid into
the post office.
52. I took part in the mediation in 2013, and received £2,500 in compensation. I was party
to the group litigation against the Post Office, as a result I am excluded from the Historic
Shortfall Scheme.
53. My family and I suffered huge losses to our finances. In order to pay back the shortfalls
I was ploughing money from everywhere. I was using credit cards, taking out loans,
dipping into my personal savings and having to savings from my family and friends.
54. My credit rating has been completely ruined as a result of the Post Office’s actions
against me. I am not credit worthy anymore and I will never be able to recover my credit
rating.
55. I have never been able to put myself back into the financial position I was in before I
became involved with the Post Office, and I am still suffering financially to this day.
Page 9 of 12
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
WITNO03320100
WITNO3320100
The Post Office made it appear as though the shortfalls were all my fault, and as a result,
I had to make shortfalls good immediately without fail. I never saw any takings from the
retail side of my business, because they were always apportioned to any losses in the
post office cash account.
I had no money to pay my household bills, I could not pay off credit cards, cover my
mortgage or car insurance. I was constantly going back and forth agreeing payment
plans in order to pay back my debts.
My finances became so strained that I eventually had to sell my car, as I simply could
not afford to pay for car insurance, and I did not want the burden of another debt
hanging over me.
My anxiety went through the roof because of the money I was having to borrow. I was
distraught and I was having sleepless nights over the financial situation the Post Office
put me in.
The post office not only destroyed my life but I also had to watch them destroy my late
father’s life, as prior to his termination he too struggled having to pay back shortfalls.
My father was a strong, proud man and he was yet another subpostmaster who fell
victim to the Post Office.
I suffer from depression and anxiety due to the amount of money that I lost through
having to pay the post office for these alleged shortfalls. I also suffered with alcoholism
for many years after my experience of running the branch.
I am still known as the “father and son who stole from the Post Office”. This has been
so damaging to me and my family and especially within the Indian community which I
come from.
The Post Office made me out to look like a thief, this destroyed my reputation in my
local community as my branch was situated in a small community.
Page 10 of 12
WITNO03320100
WITNO3320100
64. The Post Office made me out to look like a thief embezzling money. They painted me
as criminal that was stealing from the community and the tax payer.
65. Asa result, there was so much gossip about me in the local community which only
added to my depression and anxiety.
66. The Post Office broke my father and they broke me.
CONCLUSION
67. The loss of my father, I believe, was a direct result of the Post Office’s actions and their
behaviour against both of us. The stress became too much for him.
68. The Post Office are a cancer, they cover up and pass off any problems that arise instead
of offering help and support to their subpostmasters. I don’t know when we will learn
as a race that simply passing problems off instead of addressing issues head on is the
only way to move forward.
69. The Post Office should be punished for the lives they have destroyed. The post office
should be punished in the same way myself and all the other subpostmasters were
punished.
70. Iwas on track to have a successful career as a pilot, but my whole life stopped when the
post office terminated my father’s contract and I had to step in. I had to give up on my
dream of becoming a pilot to take on a business that ultimately destroyed my life.
71. I walked into the hands of a corrupt organisation that is wholly owned by the
government, who knew that the Horizon system was faulty and failed to do anything
about it.
Page 11 of 12
WITNO03320100
WITNO3320100
72. I believe the Post Office needs to be completely dismantled and restructured. I want to
be compensated for what I lost and also what my late father lost to the Post Office.
73. \would like the inquiry to call forward Post Office employees such as, their investigators,
NFSP representatives and the management team to be investigated.
74. I would also like an apology from the Post Office to me and my mother. I want the Post
office to understand the harm they caused me and my family.
75. We only get one shot at life, and if you try your best and fail then that’s a beautiful thing,
because at least you tried. However, I did not fail, nor did my father, every person that
pursued a career as a subpostmaster was actively set up to fail.
76. The Post Office have actively destroyed my family’s dreams. My life was stolen from me
by the British government, and they had no right to do that to anyone.
77. The lives and dreams the Post Office destroyed is criminal and should be treated as
such.
STATEMENT OF TRUTH
I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.
Arun Bhanote
Page 12 of 12