Dead postmistress' compensation plea read to inquiry

BBC

The only regret of a former sub-postmistress was that she did not live to see "real justice done", her husband has said.

Gill Blakey, who passed away last week, would urge the Post Office to "put an end to all this delay over compensating people properly", he said.

Campaigners have repeatedly criticised how long it has taken for sub-postmasters affected by the Horizon IT scandal to get full redress for wrongful prosecutions by the Post Office.

A public inquiry into the matter is putting questions to the organisation's chief executive Nick Read this week.

Mrs Blakey's passing was announced by Sir Wyn Williams, the chair of the ongoing inquiry.

In a statement issued through his lawyers, David Blakey said his wife had followed it every day and "her only real regret was that she couldn’t live until the end and to see real justice done".

He said she was "overwhelmed with anger at the total incompetence and disregard shown by most of the witnesses" at the inquiry.

Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted when faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as though money was missing from branches.

Mr Blakey, from Cleethorpes, was convicted of theft and false accounting in 2004, and lost his job, his home and his pension as a result.

He had his name cleared formally in 2021.

Mr Blakey said: "I settled my case because of my bad heart and I felt that by doing so, we would at least have some money in the bank to enjoy. How life changes.

"I know Gill would urge the Post Office to get rid of all these [redress] schemes and put an end to all this delay over compensating people properly. She would urge them to do the right thing before more people pass."

Separately, the outgoing chief executive of the Post Office, Nick Read, has said he was told "not to dig into" details of the Horizon scandal when he joined the business in 2019.

During previous hearings, some executives have claimed Mr Read was "obsessed" with increasing his salary. He has also been investigated - and cleared - of bullying.

On Wednesday, Mr Read said when he joined the Post Office, its leadership was "part in denial, part in paralysis" around issues with the Horizon system.

Bosses were instead focussed on the company's financial performance, adding that he was not made aware of the "scale and enormity" of the scandal.

Mr Read said in a witness statement that private prosecutions of sub-postmasters "were presented to me as an historic issue that had ceased before 2015".

He confirmed to Horizon inquiry lead counsel Jason Beer that the Post Office’s general counsel Ben Foat had told him that. Mr Foat is currently on a leave of absence.

Mr Read also said that dealing with the Horizon scandal was not flagged to him as an issue when he first joined the organisation in September 2019.

He was brought in to replace Paula Vennells at a time when the loss-making organisation was facing a crisis as the scale of the Horizon scandal came to light.

Mr Read told the inquiry that when a High Court judgement was handed down late in 2019 that found serious bugs, errors and defects in the Horizon system, there were "no urgent calls or panicked discussions" among senior leadership and the board, he said.

He agreed with a lawyer's suggestion that bosses were "living in something of a dream world".

He said it would be "impossible not to conclude that", when asked by Jason Beer.

One High Court judgement found the Horizon IT software contained a large number of software defects and was not "remotely robust". A second - the Horizon Issues Judgement - found serious bugs in the system.

Mr Read told the inquiry that after the High Court judgement was handed down, he started working with Post Office lawyers so there was "more of a realisation from my perspective" as to the scale of the issue compared with the other members of the leadership team.

Mr Read, who will step down from his role next year, gave up some "front-line" duties last year to give his "entire attention" to the final stage of the inquiry, which first started in 2022 and has heard evidence from scores of victims and executives.