Campaigners for justice in the Post Office detraction have actually stated they will certainly “never give in” after obtaining OBEs in the brand-new year honours checklist.
Lee Castleton, Seema Misra, Chris Head and Jo Hamilton were all honoured for solutions to justice. The lead advocate, Sir Alan Bates, was knighted previously this year.
Hundreds of Post Office branch drivers were maltreated and some prosecuted when the defective Horizon IT system reported deficiencies in their funds. Many are still waiting for settlement.
Castleton, from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, was made insolvent after the system reported that ₤ 25,000 was missing out on from his branch in 2004. His instance included in the hit ITV dramatization Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
He stated: “Sometimes you have to step forward and shout as loud as you can because some of our group aren’t able to do that. I’m very honoured and very proud.
“Obviously, it’s one of those things where it’s not the end. It’s just sad that it’s been prolonged and protracted by the other side and it would be nice to just draw a line under everything with something like this – but onwards and upwards.”
Misra was incarcerated when she was expecting and had her child behind bars after proof supplied by the Horizon system was approved as proof of her sense of guilt over a fee of swiping ₤ 74,000 from her branch in West Byfleet, Surrey, in 2005.
She stated: “I used to say ‘God, why me?’ because I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. I laugh about it now but I came up with the answer myself – God probably wants some strong people to come forward to fight the Post Office. So it’s definitely given me a purpose in life.”
Head was wrongly charged on the basis of the Horizon system of swiping greater than ₤ 80,000 from his branch in West Bolden, near Sunderland, in 2006 prior to his instance was gone down.
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At 18, he had actually been the youngest branch driver when he took control of. He was gone after by the Post Office via the civil courts over the shortage.
He stated: “It is a huge honour when I got the letter a few weeks ago. But what we need to utilise is what Sir Alan said when he received his, that it’s like another string to the bow.
“People will recognise you a little bit more and we can push on to try and fix all the remaining outstanding problems, and unfortunately there are still quite a lot of them across the various compensation schemes.”
