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Post Office scandal: Anglesey honours wrongly jailed sub-postmaster

BBC Noel Thomas with his honourBBC
Noel Thomas, pictured with his wife Eira, was wrongly jailed for nine months in 2006, in the UK's most widespread miscarriage of justice

A former sub-postmaster who was disqualified as a councillor 16 years ago when he was wrongly jailed has been honoured by the local authority.

Noel Thomas, 75, was one of more than 700 sub-postmasters convicted in the Post Office IT scandal.

He was sent to prison for false accounting in 2006, but had his conviction quashed last year.

Anglesey council gave him "a long delayed vote of thanks for his service".

The Post Office IT scandal was the UK's most widespread miscarriage of justice, and the prosecutions were based on flawed information from the Horizon computer system.

Mr Thomas, from Gaerwen, Anglesey, first represented Plaid Cymru as a councillor in 1986.

'Our hands were tied'

He received a letter of disqualification when he was serving nine months in Kirkham prison, Lancashire in 2006, because of the length of his sentence.

Council chairman Dafydd Roberts, who also presented Mr Thomas with a gift, said: "Noel had to leave the council through no fault of his own, but our hands were tied.

"We have great sympathy for him, he has been treated horrendously by his employer, and we appreciate the way he has conducted himself during this egregious miscarriage of justice.

"There is nothing the council can do to right the wrong, but we can take a small step to show we have the greatest respect for him."

Noel Thomas with the council leader, receiving his honour
Noel Thomas said it was emotional to be recognised by the council, 16 years after he was disqualified

He added that they wanted to show their appreciation as a council, and "he was and always will be a pillar of the community".

The former sub-postmaster, who will be 76 on Christmas Eve, said he was extremely grateful for the honour, and he vividly remembered getting the disqualification letter in prison.

'Lump in my throat'

"What could I do?" he said.

"I read it, and had a lump in my throat, helping people was the main thing about being a councillor - it was the Post Office's fault not the council."

His daughter Sian said the vote of thanks was welcome "after all these years".

"We as a family think it's a lovely idea, as at the same time the authority had no choice at the time but to dismiss him."