Former NI sub-postmaster awarded £200k compensation

A former Belfast sub-postmaster caught up in the Horizon IT scandal will receive £200,000 compensation.

The man secured the order on Wednesday following a 15 year battle to clear his name.

His legal representatives described the outcome as "life-changing".

More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted for stealing because of incorrect information from the Horizon computer system.

Fraud charges were brought against the man, who has not yet been identified, in relation to a business he ran in the early 2000s.

He initially pleaded guilty on legal advice to seven counts of false accounting.

The man received a suspended prison sentence and was ordered to pay back a sum of £1,500 to the Post Office.

However, after the computer system was found to have faults, his convictions were quashed in September.

Lawyers for the man applied for compensation under the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme.

Solicitor Victoria Trainor, of KRW Law, claimed no amount of money would remove the stigma her client endured.

"These toxic convictions have affected every strata of his life, preventing him progressing with any career and excluding him from getting certain jobs which sadly affected his mental health."

Ms Trainor said it was "depressing that a totally innocent man devoted to his work and family was fitted up for a crime he didn't commit".

"The Post Office hierarchy responsible for this injustice debacle should forever hang their heads in shame," she added.

The scandal has been described as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.

The Post Office itself took many cases to court, prosecuting 700 people between 1999 and 2015. Another 283 cases were brought by other bodies, including the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Many sub-postmasters went to prison for false accounting and theft, and many were financially ruined.