Postmasters driven to exile, jail and death by Post Office

Depression, prison time, moving country, and attempted suicide. These are just some of the tales told by the victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal.

- ATHENA STAVROU

Errors made by the Horizon software, which was made by tech firm Fujitsu and used by the Post Office, led to the wrongful conviction of more than 700 people over false accounting and theft between 1999 and 2015.

Speaking to The Independent, some of these former postmasters shared their horrific stories. None of them has received full compensation. A renewed focus on the scandal comes after the showing of a new ITV drama, Mr Bates vs. The Post Office, which has re-sparked interest in the ongoing scandal.

Scotland Yard said last week that officers were "investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions", including "monies recovered from subpostmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions".

Prime minister Rishi Sunak also told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that ministers were looking "every which way we can" to help those embroiled in the scandal, including the option of exoneration. A petition calling for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to lose her CBE has attracted more than a million signatures.

Several people took their own lives due to the stress and 60 of the victims have died before finding any justice at all, with accusations tearing people's lives apart, and many losing their jobs and homes. One of those people was Janet Skinner, who began working for the Post Office in 1994 and soon worked her way up to become a postmaster in Bransholme, Hull. Then Horizon was introduced.