Scottish victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal have told how their lives were ruined after being falsely accused of fraud due a computer error.
Postmasters Vinod Sharma, Peter Worsfold and Louise Dar revealed the impact of the scandal yesterday, saying their lives were ruined by the fraud claims.
They gave evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry at Glasgow’ s Marriott Hotel.
The inquiry is a public probe into the failings of the Post Office’s accounting system, which saw subpostmasters suspended, sacked, prosecuted, convicted and jailed.
Vinod Sharma, 74, took over a Post Office in Balornock, Glasgow, in 1977, and was known to locals as “Victor”.
But he was left having sleepless nights, with a £30,000 hole in his personal finances, after the Horizon IT system stated his shop’s takings were missing £29,000 in June 2015.
He was visiting his son in America at the time and had to cut his holiday short to deal with the fallout.
He borrowed money from friends and family to pay the deficit, later paying them back more than half his retirement lump sum.
The innocent postmaster took the hit as it prevented investigations by police and the Post Office and ensured no suspension.
He described it as “a deliberate catastrophic event”, saying it was “devastating” and caused him and others “grief and hellish torture”.
Vinod said the IT system was “faulty and corrupt”, adding: “It’s left a horrible, horrible, horrible feeling that you’ve been left with this legacy of a shortfall. It had a devastating effect. You soldier on but you do suffer a lot.”
Peter Worsfold, 77, who ran a Post Office in Inverness from 1997 to 2002, called in police over a £20,000 discrepancy.
But they couldn’t work out what had happened and no action was taken.
He said he shelled out £37,000 after borrowing from family, to make up for what the system calculated was missing.
The 77-year-old, who was suspended and then sacked over the non-existent shortfall, said: “I didn’t think I’d been affected by this mentally but, on talking to my children and ex-staff members, I’d become a different person, losing my temper and shouting a lot.
"This was brought on by the stress and worry from the consequence of the Post Office’s actions.”
And Louise Dar, 39, said an auditor noticed a £900 shortfall when setting up her system in Lenzie, near Glasgow. She paid around £40,000 over two-and-a-half years.
The inquiry continues.
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