'We had to skip meals', says former sub-postmistress

A former sub-postmistress who was wrongly jailed while pregnant has told of how she skipped meals in order to feed her children following her release.

Seema Misra, who lives in Bisley, Surrey, was sentenced in 2010 after an audit found a discrepancy in her accounts.

"We lost everything...We hardly had any proper meals, we were missing meals to make sure the children were fed," she said.

It comes as the BBC is set to broadcast a new documentary, Surviving the Post Office, on how former subpostmasters are rebuilding their lives after being accused of theft.

Mrs Misra, 49, said her children also only had one school uniform each in the period before the family received interim compensation.

"It was the most difficult time," she said.

She became a sub-postmistress in West Byfleet in Surrey in June 2005 and was suspended in January 2008 after an audit found a discrepancy of £74,000 in her accounts.

She has previously spoken about having suicidal thoughts after being convicted of theft and sent to HMP Bronzefield for four-and-a-half months.

Her conviction was quashed in 2021, with Mrs Misra saying the Court of Appeal judgment meant she could "go through passport control without being stopped".

But after a period remotely working for a now-defunct telesales company, she told the BBC she was still "scared to work in any office environment" in case she was falsely accused of another offence.

The impact of the scandal is also still being felt within her family, including by her 13-year-old son who was born while she was wearing an electronic tag.

"We only told him the whole truth about what happened at Easter," she said. "He was crying...asking 'what if the Post Office arrest you again?' I had to reassure him they weren't going to."

Mrs Misra's husband Davinder, who has previously said he was assaulted three times after his wife was labelled a "pregnant thief" by a local newspaper, said their experience "still keeps me awake sometimes at night gritting my teeth".

"This will be with us for the rest of our lives. I would like to forget but only time will tell," added Mrs Misra.

Chirag Sidhpura, 48, a former Farncombe sub-postmaster, was forced to repay the Post Office £57,000 after a 2017 audit showed an alleged discrepancy in his accounts.

He said he had received an interim payment that had helped him "clear the debt" but was hoping to receive further compensation.

"The impact on me personally, physically and mentally has been draining, very exhausting," he said. "I'm currently going through therapy."

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