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Post Office scandal: Sub-postmaster critical of compensation

Martin Giles/BBC Ian WarrenMartin Giles/BBC
Ian Warren took on his village Post Office as part of his retirement plans

A former sub-postmaster caught up in the Post Office IT scandal is calling for "proper compensation" so he can "spend the rest of my days in peace".

Ian Warren's 2009 conviction for stealing about £18,000 from the Post Office he ran in Castle Hedingham, Essex, was quashed earlier this year.

The 74-year-old said the scandal had taken a terrible toll on his family.

The Post Office has paid him £20,000 as compensation, but Mr Warren says this is inadequate given his losses.

"I just want to wake up in the morning and not to have the first thing I think be the Post Office," he said.

Martin Giles/BBC Ian WarrenMartin Giles/BBC
Ian Warren was convicted of a crime he had not committed and had to dip into his pension to prop up the business

Mr Warren is one of dozens of former sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses who had their convictions overturned in the UK's most widespread miscarriage of justice.

The Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses between 1999 and 2015 based on information from a Fujitsu computer system called Horizon.

Some went to prison, many were financially ruined and some have since died.

Horizon contained "bugs, errors and defects", according to the High Court judgement which quashed many of the convictions.

PA Media Subpostmasters celebrate the quashing of their convictionsPA Media
Ian Warren is now due for compensation as a result of his unfair conviction, along with dozens of others whose convictions were also overturned

Mr Warren pleaded guilty to theft to avoid prison.

He and his family moved counties to "find another source of income - [but] not by telling people I had a criminal record".

Mr Warren is now calling for increased compensation for all those wrongly accused or convicted.

He says this means the government - as the Post Office's owner - taking "ownership of the fact that they presided over a complete shambles of management".

"They are ultimately responsible for the broken lives they unwittingly left behind," he said.

The government has agreed to pay wrongly convicted sub-postmasters interim compensation of up to £100,000.

A spokesman said it would also provide sufficient financial support to the Post Office for compensation for those accused but not prosecuted.

A Post Office spokeswoman said: "We are sincerely sorry for past failures and are taking determined action to provide redress for the people affected."

The decades-long story of The Great Post Office Trial can be heard on BBC Sounds.

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