Horizon scandal ordeal destroyed my health, says 'oldest' victim

A COUNTY Durham woman thought to be the Horizon IT scandal’s oldest victim says that the ordeal “destroyed” her health.

- ELLIE CRABBE and DANIEL HOLLAND

Betty Brown, 92, from County Durham, ran the Annfield Plain Post Office in the 1990s and early 2000s alongside her late husband Oswall.

She claims that his death was impacted by the ordeal of missing hundreds of pounds each week in their accounts.

Ms Brown told the PA news agency at the Kia Oval in London: “We had a nice office, nice atmosphere, nice customers and everything was fine, no problem.

“And then we were told about this wonderful advancement in technology, and we would get a system put in, called Horizon that would half the workload - which it didn’t.

“So Horizon was put in, then the very first night, the balance was £500 short, but they thought something had been missed in the accounts or whatever and that was just let go.