LONDON, March 22 — Britain said today it would pay compensation to postal workers who were wrongly convicted of fraud in one of England’s biggest ever miscarriages of justices.
Hundreds of Post Office workers were prosecuted between 2000 and 2014 after a software glitch in the Post Office’s IT system Horizon resulted in shortfalls in accounts.
Some of the workers were sent to prison, others lost their livelihoods and their homes. Many went bankrupt and some died before their names were cleared.
In December 2019, the Post Office agreed to settle claims made by 555 sub-postmasters, but many of the victims found the amount paid in compensation was outweighed by their legal fees.
The government said it would launch a new government compensation scheme for those who were the first to take legal action against the Post Office over the failings.
“Whilst it cannot take away the years of distress, the postmasters who have suffered terribly over the Post Office Horizon scandal deserve to be fairly compensated,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“That’s why we’ll be introducing a new compensation scheme for those who led and won the landmark legal case over the failings, so they can receive their fair share.” — Reuters