Despite receiving OBE awards for their role in exposing the Post Office scandal, former sub-postmasters emphasize the need for full compensation for victims.
Campaigners who helped expose the Post Office scandal have said they would rather they had full compensation than recognition. Four former sub-postmasters – Lee Castleton, Jo Hamilton, Seema Misra and Christopher Head – are among the 1,203 people to have been recognised by King Charles in this year’s awards. All have been made Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of their “services to justice”.
But out of the four, only Mr Castleton and Ms Hamilton have so far received financial redress under the government’s Horizon compensation schemes, launched in March. More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly convicted of criminal offences by the Post Office because of its faulty IT system Horizon between 1999 and 2015, while thousands of others were sacked and lost money. It took more than two decades for the scandal to finally come to light when 555 victims successfully sued the Post Office in the High Court in 2019. The ruling led to former sub-postmasters overturning the first criminal convictions in 2020 and the launch of a public inquiry. Former sub-postmistress Seema Misra was wrongly imprisoned due to bugs in the Post Office’s Horizon computer system. Mr Castleton, 55, was declared bankrupt after being falsely accused of stealing £25,000 from his branch in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, in 2004.: “I’m a proud Yorkshire man, I served in the Royal Air Force, I’m British through and through so I’m very proud and honoured – I just wish it wasn’t in these circumstances. “I’m really grateful, but I would much rather we were all fully compensated and people were held to account.” Despite the outcry over the Post Office scandal, many victims are still awaiting compensation and want the Government to speed-up the process. Mr Castleton has received his compensation – but said that some victims are not being offered enough to cover what they have los
Post Office Scandal Compensation Honours Sub-Postmasters Justice
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