WITN03330100
Witness Name: Mrs Carol Riddell
Statement No.:WITN0333_01
Exhibits: None
Dated: 30 March 2022
THE POST OFFICE HORIZON INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF MRS CAROL RIDDELL
1, MRS CAROL Riddell WILL STATE as follows:
INTRODUCTION
1. lam 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. I can confirm that I have been informed that a false statement verified by a
statement of truth constitutes contempt of Court if made without honest belief in its
truth.
BACKGROUND
2. 1 live with my husband, Alan Riddell in Sunderland, who was also a subpostmaster
and a core participant in the inquiry. We have two daughters, five grandchildren and
1 great-grandson.
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3. I have been shown and have read the human impact statement of my husband, Alan
Riddell. Alan’s statement accurately reflects the experiences that we had as a result
of failures in the Horizon {T system and as a result of the Post Office Limited’s actions
against us.
4. I however, would like to expand on this and include my own thoughts and
observations.
DECISION TO BECOME A SUBPOSTMISTRESS
5. I have a background in banking and I worked for the Post Office for several years
prior to becoming subpostmistress in 1992. Prior to that I had run my own successful
hairdressing business for many years.
6. Before the Horizon system was introduced in 1999, I ran the post office using the old
manual balancing. The manual system worked well as I was always able to go back
over the figures if there was a discrepancy and locate where an error was made and
amend it accordingly. This was something sadly lacking on the Horizon system.
7. During my career with the Post Office Ltd I was also a relief subpostmistress when
problems occurred in other branches. I felt I went from a highly respected
subpostmistress to an incompetent one and lost all confidence in my ability to do a
good job. This was a direct result of the supposedly ‘flawless’ Horizon system.
TRAINING AND SUPPORT ON THE HORIZON SYSTEM
8. I attended 1% days training on the Horizon system in 1999. This took place at The
Swallow Hotel in Gateshead and included a mixture of subpostmasters and counter
clerks. There were ‘dummy’ terminals for us to practice on.
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9. The trainers were simply reading from manuals to train us. The training did not cover
all the types of transactions that would be carried out in the branch and it did not
cover the balancing process or any back-office work.
10. At the end of the training, I received top marks which I found strange as I did not feel
at all comfortable with the system.
11. On the day Horizon was introduced into my office there was no one present from
the Post Office to offer me support. When I came to do my first balance, I didn’t
have a clue what I was doing, I just muddled through. I couldn’t get the system to roll
over and rang the Helpline. They were no help and just kept telling me to roll over
and it would be ok, which the system would not let me do.
12.1 had to enlist the help of another subpostmaster who was more familiar with the
Horizon system to complete the balance.
13. When Horizon online was introduced I had a further % day of training in branch with
my Area Manager Phil Allen. He also shadowed me and my staff on the morning
Horizon online went live.
HELPLINE
14. The very first transaction I did on the new Horizon online system was a business
banking transaction with Alliance and Leicester for £800. The £800 did not appear in
the customer's account. I was told by the Helpline that the customer had removed
his card too quickly from the pin pad. However, this was impossible as the card was
a swipe card that had to be processed by the terminal behind the counter. I had to
pay the customer £800 from my own pocket.
15. During my time as a subpostmistress I rang the Helpline on numerous occasions,
often daily. The helpline advisors often could not answer the queries and it would
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take days to resolve, usually by myself. Often their advice would cause more
problems and, in some cases, the helplines advice caused the error to double.
16. I was of the opinion that the Helpline staff were reading from scripts and had no
idea how the Horizon system actually worked.
SUSPENSION/TERMINATION
17.1 was not suspended or termination from my position. The stress of running the
branch become unbearable. For my health I could no longer continue. I was
experiencing constant shortfalls that could not be explained.
18. The Post Office insisted there was no one else experiencing the same problems and
that the shortfalls must be a result of theft in the branch. I reluctantly agreed to
install covert CCTV (at my own expense), and the only thing that I discovered was
how hard my staff worked. There was no evidence of any wrongdoing occurring in
my branch. I felt extremely upset at not trusting my staff, especially when no
evidence was found.
19. In 2000 my husband took over as subpostmaster, he gave up a well-paid managerial
job to run the post office. Despite the problems with balancing, Post Office were
happy for me to train my husband in all aspects of being a subpostmaster. It also
impacted our financial situation as we lost my husband's income.
CRIMINAL/CIVIL PROCEEDINGS
20. I was not prosecuted by Post Office but I was threatened on several occasions with
the possibility of prosecution. In 2010, my husband too began suffering with stress
and anxiety due to the shortfalls he was experiencing and my area manager, Andy
Carpenter agreed that I should step in. My husband was physically and mentally
exhausted and too ill to run the branch.
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21. In 2011, my husband was suspensedn from his position as subpostmaster because of
the shortfalls and he was called to a disciplinary hearing. Despite me acting as
temporary subpostmistress at the time, he was the one suspended. I stood in for my
husband at the hearing.
22. I was accompanied by a Communications Worker’s Union (CWU) representative. The
interview was conducted by Andy Carpenter, my area manager. Mr Carpenter
refused to let the representative be present at the interview. Fortunately, the
representative was very experienced and insisted he be present. This was the first
time the CWU had been involved in disciplinary hearings, previously it was only the
Subpostmaster’s Federation that were permitted to attend interviews.
23. During this interview Andy Carpenter was very threatening, and it was quite
frightening. The union representative was very supportive of me. My husband’s
suspension was reluctantly lifted, and I am sure it was the presence of the union
representative that influenced this decision.
24. One of the conditions of lifting the suspension was that my daughter and our friend
who worked in the post office were banned from working in any post office branch.
25. I was promised a recording of the interview, but when I requested it, conveniently, I
was told that the machine had malfunctioned and had not recorded the interview. I
felt victimised by the Post Office and exposed by their threats and intimidation.
LOSSES
26. We suffered huge financial losses because of the Horizon shortfalls in our branch.
We had to cash in our pension plans and endowments and borrow significant sums
from family and friends. We had to enter into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement
{IVA) as we were almost bankrupt.
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27. We paid £1000 per month for 5 years under the IVA, during this time we were still
paying shortfalls to the Post Office, this caused us significant financial hardship, and
it also affected our credit rating which previously had been very good.
28. When my mother died, she left me a smail amount of money. This was swallowed up
paying back shortfalls. It was not a lot of money, but it broke my heart to have to use
her hard-earned savings to pay the Post Office. We were left almost penniless and
the retirement we had planned was impossible to fulfil as the entire amount of our
investments and savings were swallowed up paying back shortfalls.
29. When we sold the post office business in 2013 it was at a loss, after 21 years of
building up the business we had no option but to sell. Our house was attached to the
post office, so we had to sell that at the same time. We sold it at significantly less
than the market value as we had been unable to keep up with repairs and
maintenance due to our financial position.
30. We had to use the money from the sale of the post office and our home to pay back
money we owed to our family and friends, this left us with no choice but to buy
another much smaller house and outside the area we had lived in for 21 years,
because we were unable to afford to buy a property in our preferred area.
31. I would also like to mention the bond I had to pay when I first purchased the post
office. {t was just over £6000 which was a quarter of the previous subpostmaster’s
salary. I believe this was standard practice back then, in 1992. Eventually, the Post
Office phased the bond out. My understanding was that this was a backup for Post
Office in case I stole or embezzled any money. I did not receive this bond back on
leaving the post office and it was never used to repay any shortfalls.
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HUMAN IMPACT
32.1 underwent years of mental health treatments and I still suffer to this day because
of the stress. I found it difficult to leave the house as I felt I was being judged by the
focal community, where I had previously been highly respected.
33. My husband became ill with anxiety and depression in around 2010, caused by the
continual shortfalls, as a result he was unable to run the post office and it was
agreed with Andy Carpenter, my area manager that I could take over as temporary
subpostmistress until my husband recovered.
34. My self-esteem was at rock bottom. I felt the local community lost respect for me. I
was born and bred in the area where my post office was, so I was very well known. It
was terrible thinking my community thought I could be a thief.
35. It was demoralising to have to keep asking my friends and family for financial help, I
felt I was a failure and I found it very difficult to deal with. Fortunately, my friends
and family helped me, and I will be forever grateful for their love and support,
heaven knows where I would be without it.
36.1 had an enormous amount of financial help and support from my friends and family,
but it was upsetting for them to see the distress being caused to me by the continual
shortfalls and the lack of support from the Post Office. My family and friends were
incredulous that the Post Office, a trusted organisation could treat me and my
husband as they did.
37. One of my daughters worked for me in the post office, her background was in
banking and fraud. She was banned from working in any post office in 2011 after my
husband's suspension. My friend who was managing the post office had the same
ban imposed. She had managerial experience in retail, admin and finance. Both my
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daughter and my friend were very badly affected by the ban and felt it impeded their
careers.
CONCLUSION
38. As previously mentioned, the financial pressure put on us because of the shortfalls
created by a flawed horizon system was immense. As a result, I became mentally ill
and was unable to continue running the post office. A job I loved.
39. We lost our business and our home. I will never be the same person again because of
the actions of the Post Office Ltd. I hope the Post Office realise what effect they
have had on my husband and I along with many other subpostmasters. They have
ruined lives.
STATEMENT OF TRUTH
{ believe the content of this statement to be true.
Dated: DO-
Carol Riddell
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