A victim of the Post Office scandal has told how she lost her home, reputation and contact with two grandchildren in a “never-ending nightmare” after being wrongly prosecuted for stealing money.
Former sub-postmistress Suzanne Palmer, 64, went bankrupt fighting to clear her name when faulty Horizon software was to blame for the issues at the branch in Rayleigh, Essex.
Mrs Palmer told the Standard: “The Post Office robbed 19 years of our lives. Emotionally and financially, they ruined us. It felt like being hit by a baseball bat. My children had to live with the shame that everybody called me a thief.”
In October 2005, Mrs Palmer, right, was suspended despite repaying £19,700 from her own pocket to cover alleged discrepancies. A jury acquitted the mother-of-two of false accounting in January 2007. But the Post Office still terminated Mrs Palmer’s employment and her five-bedroom detached house was repossessed. Lawyers estimate her total losses to be £1 million.
Mrs Palmer’s relationship with her eldest son Kevin broke down after he gave up his job in the City to try to save the business.
Like hundreds of other sub-postmasters, she is still waiting for proper compensation but might have any payout slashed because she doesn’t have a conviction to overturn.
Mrs Palmer and husband Derek, 72 — married for 44 years — now live in a cramped one-bedroom studio flat and struggle with energy bills. “I can’t begin to tell you the effect this has had on our family,” she said.
“I lost my home. We lost everything.
“We tried to keep going but I don’t speak to one of my sons. I’ve got two of my five granddaughters that I don’t see.” She added: “Financially, I would have been better off if I had pleaded guilty. Where’s the justice in that?”
Sally Stringer, who ran a post office in Beckford, Gloucestershire, and was falsely accused of wrongdoing, said responsibility lay at the door of the Government. She has asked the public inquiry to “interrogate” Sir Ed Davey, who served as the postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012.
