Former postmaster Christopher Head says the support he has received since ITV aired a drama about the Post Office Horizon scandal is “unbelievable”.
Christopher was one of the postmaster driven out of business when a glitch in IT system Horizon calculated shorthalls in Post Office branches across the country. Over 700 sub-postmasters were subsequently convicted of offences such as fraud, theft and false accounting.
After ITV aired the drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Christopher’s petition calling for “compensation and accountability” saw an explosion of popularity. It went from 15,000 signatures to almost 300,000.
Speaking to MailOnline, he said: “It’s been unbelievable. Now it looks as though the postmasters is going to be become an election issue.
“It’s very gratifying that we’ve enjoyed this explosion of support, but at the same time, it makes you wonder what all the politicians were thinking back in 2019 when we first won our landmark judgement against the Post Office.”
Christopher was just 18 when he took over a newsagent and sub-post office with cash help from his dad. He spent years building it into a successful business and working long hours.
He was however one of many postmasters who noticed a cash shortfall on the Horizon computer system. Initially, he was able to top-up the cashflow himself, but eventually the figure jumped to £40,000 and then £80,000, says the Mail.
Christopher was suspended in 2015 and a criminal investigation launched. Although this was later dropped with the Post Office attempting to pursue the money through the High Court.
Christopher, from West Boldon, Tyneside, said his reputation in his community was in tatters during the legal action. He says he stuggled to get work due to the nature of the alleged dishonesty.
But in 2019, he was one of more than 550 postmasters that, spear-headed by Alan Bates, won a historical High Court case. The compensation process has however not been a quick one.
The Mail reports Christopher was claimed a “seven-figure sum” for a decade of lost business and damage to his reputation. He says he was offered 12% of that figure – which he rejected.
He now wants to see a proper investigation into the scandal, acountability from those involved, and compensation for the postmasters. In his petition, Christopher says: “We are now calling on this government to provide ALL victims of this scandal with the FULL and FAIR compensation they are entitled to.
“This involves ensuring that all those affected are returned to the position they would have been in had they not encountered the Horizon scandal and compensated for the pain, trauma and suffering they have gone through including their families.”
The Post Office has previously said it shares the “aims of the public inquiry to get to the truth of what went wrong in the past and establish accountability”.
