Postmaster jailed in Horizon scandal still awaiting pay out

A former postmaster who was jailed wrongfully for stealing £208,000 says he is still awaiting his full pay out.

Harjinder Butoy was among 700 post office managers convicted after the faulty Horizon accounting system made it appear money had been stolen.

A report has now revealed 438 of their applications for compensation are unresolved.

Mr Butoy said the ongoing issues surrounding compensation had left him unable to move on.

He said: "It's destroyed everything. We lost everything the day I got sentenced.

"I keep thinking one day I'll forget about it and it'll be all over, but I can't get rid of it in my head."

Mr Butoy, who co-ran a post office in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, was given a three-year and three-month sentence after his conviction in 2007 and served 18 months in prison before he was released.

His conviction was finally overturned by the Court of Appeal in April 2021.

Mr Butoy, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, who ran the post office with his wife for five years, said he had received the first stage of his compensation, but negotiations on the full pay out were still ongoing.

"I'm frustrated how long it's taking and how much they are negotiating the compensation," he added.

"They were trying to half it. From what they wanted to give me and what I got was 65%.

"I got convicted in 2007 and it took me 14 years to clear my name. Every year that goes by in my books is another sentence to me.

"Someone needs to answer for it. Someone needs to be sentenced for it, like I was."

The Post Office Horizon scandal has been described as "the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history", with some people sent to prison and many financially ruined.

The head of an inquiry into the scandal, Sir Wyn Williams, issued a report on 17 July calling for action and law changes to stop issues "blocking full and fair compensation".

It added schemes set up to compensate sub-postmasters and sub-postmistress were a "patchwork quilt with some holes in it" and there was no "valid legal reason" why the government and Post Office "cannot give effect to the commitments they which they have made" in providing "full and fair" compensation.

The former High Court judge said there were 438 applications for compensation still to be resolved as of 27 April, which the Post Office had accepted were "difficult to resolve".

The Post Office has previously said it is "sincerely sorry for the impact of the Horizon scandal on the lives of victims and their families and we are in no doubt about the human cost".

"In addressing the past, our first priority is that full, fair and final compensation is provided and we are making good progress," it added.

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