Ex-postmaster described how daughters requested him if he’d stolen £22k

A former subpostmaster has described the heartbreaking second that his daughters requested him if he had stolen 1000’s of kilos from the Post Office after he was wrongly accused of theft.

Parmod Kalia gave the Post Office £22,000 of his personal cash to steadiness his books after the defective Horizon software program made it appear like cash was lacking from the accounts.

The former postmaster was wrongly convicted of stealing and despatched to jail for six months in 2001. He was amongst greater than 700 former subpostmasters whose lives have been turned the other way up by one in every of Britain’s best miscarriages of justice. 

Yesterday, Rishi Sunak moved to attract a line beneath many years of hell for the victims by asserting a brand new regulation to quash convictions and compensate those that have been wronged. 

Mr Kalia, who had been working his department for 11 years earlier than issues began going incorrect, instructed Good Morning Britain: ‘My daughters have been very younger on the time. My youngest was six and my subsequent one was nine-years-old. They have been very younger youngsters on the time.

‘They have been asking me questions, ‘Dad have you ever taken the cash’. And I had no reply for them. I could not say it was the pc system. I mentioned, ‘No, I have never taken it’. I did not suppose it was the pc programs till 2015.’

Mr Kalia had the final 21 years of his life taken from him because of the scandal, which brought on a breakdown in his relationship along with his household and led to him being shunned from his group. 

He revealed that he needed to borrow the cash from his mom’s life financial savings and hand it to the Post Office inside two days.

Mr Kalia mentioned he was instructed by his federation rep to ‘make up a narrative and plead responsible’ to try to keep away from a custodial sentence. ‘I pleaded responsible, like he mentioned, on his recommendation. I received a six-month custodial sentence.’

When he got here out of jail, he mentioned he was banned from his store, could not go away the home earlier than 9am and needed to be residence by 6pm. He left the store following the repercussions from the shoppers and let his spouse and youngsters run it as an alternative. 

‘The influence it is had, we needed to finally shut the store, could not promote it. We simply closed the store down, misplaced all of the goodwill of the store which we constructed up over time,’ he defined.

‘I had no different postmasters to speak to till 2015. For 15 years I cooped it up inside myself.’

Yesterday, on the identical programme, he revealed that he had been ‘destroyed mentally’ and tried suicide on three events. 

It comes after the Prime Minister introduced that the Government will take drastic motion to ‘proper the wrongs’.

Describing the scandal as ‘one of many best miscarriages of justice in our nation’s historical past’, Mr Sunak mentioned round 750 former postmasters will be capable of signal easy declarations of innocence to be exonerated en masse. 

Legislation will likely be launched inside weeks to enact the blanket overturning of convictions – which crucially clears names totally, in contrast to a pardon.

That will unlock a whole bunch of tens of millions of kilos in ‘life-changing’ compensation, probably £600,000 every, which must be paid by the tip of the 12 months.

The extraordinary motion by the federal government – following a public outcry sparked by the heart-rending ITV drama laying out the experiences of victims – got here almost 15 years after the failings in Horizon accounting software program began being uncovered.

It represents an enormous victory for the marketing campaign headed by former postmaster Alan Bates – who’s now being backed for an honour by Downing Street and Labour chief Keir Starmer.

So far simply 93 have been in a position to clear their names within the courts, leaving a whole bunch unable to assert compensation.

Under regular circumstances, the Criminal Cases Review Commission would have a look at the person convictions and probably ship them to the Court of Appeal, a glacial course of.

Mr Sunak mentioned the scandal had taken place ‘over many years’ and with ‘a number of folks at fault’.

Another former subpostmaster falsely accused of theft by his bosses has instructed how he’s nonetheless struggling flashbacks and ready for justice after 14 years.

Keith Macaldowie, 50, was pushed to the brink of suicide as a result of claimed shortfalls at his publish workplace in Greenock, Scotland, which have been attributable to the Horizon system.

The first of £5,000 occurred in 2009 and the second in 2011 when an audit alleged £10,000 was lacking. The father-of-two borrowed £10,000 from his mother-in-law, took one other mortgage for £5,000 and remortgaged his residence to steadiness the books.

But he was nonetheless compelled to resign over the specter of prosecution and after dropping his enterprise he’s right this moment working as an area road sweeper.

Mr Macaldowie says the trauma of his ordeal has come flooding again this week with the screening of a TV drama concerning the scandal, Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

‘It was a tough look ahead to me, as a result of I may see myself. It was fairly emotional, it gave me flashbacks,’ he mentioned. ‘It introduced all of it again. At one level again then I used to be able to kill myself, however I used to be nervous concerning the influence on my sons.’

When shortfalls saved occurring at his department, he could not perceive why.

He mentioned: ‘I believed it should be one thing I used to be doing incorrect, although I hadn’t taken the cash. There have been bugs within the system which may duplicate transactions and I did not know that the system may very well be accessed remotely up till the inquiry.

‘I used to be compelled to resign for ‘false accounting’ or else I’d be prosecuted.’

Mr Macaldowie is likely one of the 555 folks led by former postmaster Alan Bates who took the Post Office to the High Court in 2019/20.

He obtained simply £10,000 from a Group Litigation Order (GLO) from a £58m settlement paid out in 2019 to 600 postmasters out of courtroom. He says he has suffered from psychological well being issues and his marriage broke down.

Tragically his spouse whom he was separated from handed away final 12 months, and he’s now sweeping the streets and a lone mother or father to his sons, aged 21 and 17.

Mr Macaldowie mentioned: ‘Every morning I get up, I’m aggravated that I’m nonetheless alive however I’ve received to be right here as I’m the one mother or father for the boys.

‘If this hadn’t occurred, I’d nonetheless be working my very own enterprise. It’s actually knocked my confidence.

‘I used to be accused of stealing and received into debt. I needed to give cash to the publish workplace I did not owe, it is like extortion.’

He says he’s glad that the tv drama has made such an influence however is indignant that that is what it has taken for politicians to take the case severely. He mentioned: ‘It is a shame that it is taken a TV drama earlier than issues have come to a head.

‘This goes all the best way again to 2009, there have been two Panorama documentaries made about it and a e-book. It’s ruined my life.’

Mr Macaldowie says he does not know if he’ll ever get again the cash he needed to pay, or compensation. He believes former Post Office bosses must be taken to process over the scandal.

He mentioned: ‘I’m within the means of making use of for reimbursement, which isn’t compensation. I’m nonetheless in limbo, as I do not know know whether or not I’m entitled to it. It’s within the arms of the authorized staff.

‘The ex-Post Office CEO Paula Vennells must be investigated and if wrongdoing is discovered, she must be prosecuted.

‘I additionally suppose Fujitsu who created Horizon must be investigated as nicely.’

Mr Macaldowie mentioned that whereas he needs justice to be finished he believes it’s going to in the end be too little, too late for him and so many others whose lives have been ruined.

‘There is nothing that may assist me,’ he mentioned. ‘No amount of cash will make any distinction to me. It’s too late. It’s too late for plenty of folks.

‘It will have an effect on households for generations.’

It comes because the highlight additionally activates IT big Fujitsu, after its defective accounting software program Horizon helped result in the conviction of a whole bunch of Post Office department managers. 

Fujitsu representatives are as a result of seem at a public inquiry into the scandal subsequent week with the corporate additionally known as to look earlier than a British parliamentary committee for questioning.

‘Anybody who’s proven to be chargeable for this scandal must be held accountable, together with by making funds into the taxpayer’s fund,’ Kevin Hollinrake, the minister with accountability for postal affairs, mentioned in parliament on Monday.

There has been resurgent curiosity within the wrongful convictions after a British TV drama on the occasions just lately aired. Fujitsu’s Horizon laptop accounting system was on the centre of the scandal for incorrectly displaying shortfalls within the accounts of Post Office branches.

Fujitsu CEO Takahito Tokita has not commented publicly on the scandal.

In an announcement given on Thursday, Fujitsu mentioned: ‘The inquiry has bolstered the devastating influence on postmasters’ lives and that of their households, and Fujitsu has apologised for its position of their struggling.’

‘Fujitsu is totally dedicated to supporting the inquiry to be able to perceive what occurred and to study from it,’ the assertion mentioned. The firm declined to reply additional questions.

The firm is listed as a strategic provider to the British authorities and has gained different contracts from them.

Fujitsu’s shares closed flat on Thursday in Tokyo after three consecutive days of decline.

In October 2020, Fujitsu {hardware} powering the Tokyo Stock Exchange failed, inflicting an all-day buying and selling halt that tarnished the bourse’s status.