Former sub-postmistress 'still fighting' for full compensation

A former County Tyrone sub-postmistress has said she is "still fighting" to get back all of the money she is owed as a result of the Post Office IT scandal.

More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted because of incorrect information from the Horizon computer system showed missing payments from their branch accounts.

It comes after Sir Alan Bates, who led a redress campaign for victims, wrote in the Sunday Times that his compensation offer was less than half of his claim.

The Department for Business and Trade said: "Anyone unhappy with their offer can have their case reviewed by a panel of experts."

Fiona Elliott bought a Post Office and shop in the rural village of Clady in County Tyrone with her husband in 2005.

She said that she was putting thousands of pounds of her own money to cover shortfalls logged in the system.

"Now I'm still fighting to get it back," she told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.

Mrs Elliott said she first applied for compensation as a result of the scandal five years ago, but added that she has only been offered 5% of what she believes she is entitled to.

She previously told the Post Office Inquiry in 2022 that her losses, including wages and the repossession of buy-to-let properties, was about £1m.

"It feels like we have to beg to get it back," she said.

"I lost the shop, the Post Office and then I lost buy-to-let properties as well."

She added that complex cases, like hers often, face delays when it comes to compensation being paid out.

Mrs Elliott said she has appealed her compensation total three times, and has now been advised to apply for the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS).

This scheme is for sub-postmasters who were not convicted or part of the Group Litigation Order court action, but who believe they experienced shortfalls because of Horizon.

This group will be offered a fixed payment of £75,000 or can have an application assessed by the scheme.

Mrs Elliott said she feels she has wasted "five years on a scheme that wasn't going to pay me out anyway".

"It's just like starting over again.

"You're constantly begging with them and constantly appealing and it's just going on too long."

Mrs Elliott said she is not sure of how much faith she has in the scheme, and that many sub-postmasters are still waiting to be paid.

"I don't think there's very many who have got their full and fair redress and I'm only sitting at a 5% offer at the minute and to get it to 100% it could be a long road," she said.

She added that she believes many will take a lower offer than what they're entitled to because they don't want to fight anymore.

"I'm going to keep going until the end," she added.

In a statement a spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade said: "We pay tribute to all the postmasters who've suffered from this scandal, including Sir Alan for his tireless campaign for justice.

"We have quadrupled the total amount paid to postmasters since entering government."

The statement added that it recognises there will be an "absence of evidence given the length of time which has passed" and therefore will give the benefit of the doubt to postmasters.

"Anyone unhappy with their offer can have their case reviewed by a panel of experts, which is independent of the government," it added.