PA mediaA woman considered the oldest victim of the post office horizon that the scam said that her health was “destroyed”.
Betty Brown, a 92 -year -old from County Durham, ran the Enfield Plane Branch with her late husband Oswal in the 1990s and spent more than £ 50,000 of her savings in the early 2000s, which were not present.
Ms. Brown was speaking the day when the first section of the report was published from the official inquiry in the scandal – the scale of wrongly suffering hundreds of postmasters was wrongly prosecuted to disappear from their accounts.
The post office apologized “unreserved” and said it would carefully consider the report.
Oversean by Sir Vyan Williams, this It was found that the situation had a “disastrous” effect The accused, along with at least 59 people, considered committing suicide at various points.
Ten tried to kill his life and more than 13 people may have killed themselves due to the scam.
Recalling her own position, Ms. Brown said: “We had a good office, good environment, good customer and everything was fine, no problem.
“And then we were told about this amazing progress in technology and we get a system called horizon which will be in half the charge.
“Then the first night, the remaining amount was £ 500 small, but thought that whatever was missed in the accounts or whatever he was allowed to leave.
“It eventually began that the system had so much mistakes that it was related, and these disadvantages were coming in the volume of £ 1,500, £ 1,600 every week, and we were doing this money to pour and make it good because you sign up for it.”
Ms. Brown said that the exam lost her voice, while anxiety interrupted her husband’s treatment for cancer.
He died a year after selling the post office, which Ms. Brown said that she was forced to do.
“Stress was incredible,” he said. “You used to go to bed at night and you could not sleep.”
Ms. Brown and her husband said that there was a “stigma”, saying that she was a “stigma” and forced her to keep a low profile.
When people asked the couple what they had done for the first work, they would avoid giving an answer, he said.
Ms. Brown was one of the original 555 victims who participated in the Landmark Group legal action led by Allen Bates against the post office.
She is originally campaigning for full compensation after offering less than a third of which she claimed.
Earlier this year he said that he received a new proposal of 60%, Which he also rejected,
Praising the report, he said that Sir Vayan “did a wonderful job”.
He said: “He has felt the pain, he has felt worried, he felt pain, he felt everything that the sub-postmasters felt and he is capable of bringing all his skills in a meaningful book.
“I hope the post office will take it to the board.”
Chris Head, who became the youngest sub-postmaster, was falsely accused of stealing more than £ 80,000 in 2006 when he took over the branch at West Bolden, South Tenside at the age of 18, before the criminal case was dropped against him.
He said that he was worried about how the government would respond to the report.
“This is a great day for everyone, here it is listening to it and obviously it is being discharged.
“The problem is whether action will be taken on this? And it is a huge concern because it will take the government several months to respond to these recommendations.”
PA mediaMr. Head believes that the post office “has not addressed the mistakes of the past” and warned that “no trust”.
He said: “I think you cannot close until people are held accountable for their actions. But at the same time it is so slow.
“So what we need to do in the meantime, people have been paid, receive it full and impartially as promised, and give people an opportunity to try and reconstruct their lives, while this is the accountable process.”
A post office spokesperson said: “The investigation has brought the disastrous stories of the people affected by the Kshitij scam to life.
“Their experiences represent a shameful period in our history.
“Today, we apologize unreserved to the pain that was due to postmasters and their loved ones.
“We will carefully consider the report and its recommendations.”
