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Wrongly convicted postmaster set on return

BBC A headshot of Rooprit Gill wearing a black and pink floral blouse. There is a grey background.BBC
Rooprit Gill ran the Wattville Road Post Office when she was convicted of fraud

A postmaster from Birmingham who was prosecuted during the Post Office scandal has vowed to run her former branch once again.

Rooprit Gill ran the Wattville Road Post Office in Handsworth when she became one of hundreds of sub-postmasters to be accused or convicted of theft and fraud because of a faulty computer system called Horizon.

She has since been cleared of her alleged crimes, but not before the death of her husband and a suicide attempt due to the effects of the scandal.

Speaking on the final day of the inquiry on Tuesday, a lawyer for the Post Office said that it had been "a humbling experience".

Ms Gill took over the business from her father, who she said was one of the first Asian postmasters outside of London.

However, she was dismissed by the Post Office after discrepancies in her bookkeeping were discovered but continued working in her family's shop, which contained the branch.

"I lost my reputation, she said.

Getty Images A Post Office sign outside a store on a stone buildingGetty Images
Hundreds of sub-postmasters were accused or convicted of theft and fraud because of the faulty Horizon computer system

"I had to face these customers that saw everything that happened in the newspapers.

"I sort of kept away - I didn't want to see anybody."

The shop owner said she now wants to take the business back and become a postmaster once again now that the inquiry into the scandal has come to a close.

"My dad's wish before he passed away was wanting it to be ours again - that's all he kept saying - because he knew I hadn't taken the money," she said.

"I'm adamant I want to do it.

"I want to stand behind there with my head held high and say I didn't do it."

Postmasters who used the Horizon system started to be prosecuted shortly after its rollout in 1999, lasting until 2015, resulting in one of the most widespread miscarriages in British justice.

Speaking on the last day of the inquiry, Nicola Greaney KC, acting for the Post Office, said that the scandal lay in "fundamental structural and governance failings" but that the Post Office of today "is a different organisation from the one that was in place during the failures of the past".

She conceded that the Post Office "still has a long way to go to reset its relationship with postmasters and the public".

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