It was her child’s 10th birthday when Seema Misra was sentenced to 15 months in prison for “stealing £70,000” from her Post Office branch in the village of West Byfleet in Surrey in 2010. She was eight months pregnant at the time and she gave birth to her second son wearing an electronic tag.
Misra was one of more than 700 sub-postmasters and postmistresses prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 for theft and false accounting after a faulty computer system called Horizon made it look like money was missing from their branches.
Many, like Misra, were convicted and sent to prison. Hundreds of them were left financially ruined; they lost their jobs, businesses and homes. Many have died. After all these years, the victims are still waiting for complete justice and fair compensation, but the end is nowhere in sight.
Injustice happened in not just in the wrongful convictions, but also in social humiliation and abuse that these victims had to endure. Recently speaking with Asian Trader, Misra expressed deep regret over becoming a sub post mistress at the first place, calling it the “worst decision” of her life.
She said, “We were doing so well before that. My entrepreneur journey was brilliant until the time I decided to join Post Office.”
Like other sub post masters, Misra was a pillar in her community, and everybody knew her well in the village. In 2010, when she was wrongly sentenced to prison after she was found guilty of the so-called theft following a trial in the Crown Court, both the community as well as local media showed complete hostility and lack of empathy or even mercy towards her.
Reflecting, she said, “The local newspaper published a column with headline ‘Pregnant Thief’. We had to move home thrice. Everyone in the community, including our friends, turned their back towards us overnight.
“The same people whom I used to catch up with over coffee almost every second day, none of them came forward to help and support my husband who single-handedly had to take care of my son when I was imprisoned. No one even offered words of consolation.
“Had it been the other way round, I would have definitely made sure to at least feed the rest of the family who is still in shock and already dealing with a lot. However, I don’t have any hard feelings towards anyone."
Former sub-postmistress Seema Misra (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)
When she was in jail, her husband sent urgent desperate pleas to a series of people and agencies including High Commission and human rights agencies but no one came forward to help them, she said.
Misra continued, “On the day of my sentence, it was my first child’s 10th birthday and I was eight weeks pregnant. We didn’t tell our elder child anything about prison time. He got to know what actually happened much later in 2019.
“We told him that mommy has to stay in hospital as she is pregnant. Otherwise it would have been too hard on him. For eight years, we didn't celebrate my younger son's birthday because I didn't want the world to know that I am his mother. I never used to say my full name. I used to drop my son for sports but never used to enter the ground.
“I didn’t want people to spot me and say, ‘oh she is Seema Misra, the one who was sent to prison’.
“Coming from Asian community, we always want to protect our children. And this was something very shameful for us. I can fight Post Office day in-day out but I still, after all these years, even today cannot come to terms that I was sent to jail."
Misra also stressed that Asian post masters were treated unfairly by Post Office throughout the ordeal.
She stated, “I feel Asians were kind of not targeted, but definitely got racially discriminated. Like, Post Office came upon with a mentality that if you are an Indian, you must be stealing. They proceeded with my case (a helpless Indian lady) as they wanted to set an example. They thought because of our background, we won’t be able to defend ourselves or create much noise.
“Mostly, such business is owned by the Asian community anyway. So that's why there are more Asians than the other community. But now I can feel in our meetings that most Asian sub post masters are feeling let down by the country.”
The Post Office horizon scandal is more of an ego clash, said Misra, stating that the Post office knew they were at fault and all they cared about was to cover up.
Elsewhere in Oxfordshire, unaware of Misra's ordeal, another sub post master was facing a similar fate. Sub post master Vipin Patel was charged with stealing £34,000 from the Post Office branch he ran in Horspath though his shortfalls in the financial year of 2010 mounted in excess of £75,000, leaving him no choice but to cash in his Royal Mail pension and sell his wife's family jewellery.
He was convicted of fraud and was given an 18-week suspended prison sentence in 2011.
In 2019, Misra was one of 557 claimants to whom the Post Office agreed to pay nearly £58m in compensation after losing a landmark civil litigation case (though most of the payout went on legal fees). It was only after this landmark decision that people's attitudes started shifting albeit very slowly, she said, adding that at least, the public came to know that there were many others like her.
In 2020, Vipin’s conviction was also quashed though a monumental and irreversible damage had already scarred the family for life.
In a conversation with Asian Trader, Varchas Patel, son of Vipin Patel, said, “My parents were respected citizens of a small village in Oxfordshire. Being sub postmasters, they were also the pillars of the community. Post the scandal and my father’s legal proceedings, our family had to face a lot of abuse from the community.”
Former sub post master Vipin Patel
Be it a “wanted dead or alive” poster pasted on the shop or “RIP Vipin” memorial cross planted in the centre of the village, the family faced endless racist and disturbing events for several years.
Varchas continued, “My mother was racially abused. My father suffered a lot of racial harassment and intimidation. They (counselors of Parish council and some residents) wanted to drive my mom and dad out of the village.
“Every time I visited Oxfordshire, I was harassed by counselors, who were putting pressure on me to make my parents leave the village and sell the shop. But most importantly, our relations as a family with relatives and friends were strained, some even permanently.
"As a family, we have suffered our own traumas. We as a family were perfect before 2011. When my father got prosecuted, we were divided in so many different ways. It was a nightmare. I couldn't finish my degree because I had to start working to assist my parents financially. I had to make a choice, either financially help them or see them bankrupted and just continue with my degree.”
The treatment from Post Office, the financial debt that came as well as the abusive attitude of the community left the Patel family shattered.
Varchas stated, “As a son, I have suffered depression and anxiety. My relationship with my own sister suffered for so many years. It’s just been one huge mess, and it's all been orchestrated by the post office.”
A couple more years down the line, a similar fate fell upon Shazia Saddiq.
Former sub-postmistress Shazia Saddiq (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Saddiq was a single mother of two young children, when the Post Office’s faulty IT system coupled with its complete apathy and intimidation tactics rattled her life to shreds. She had three post office branches in Newcastle between 2009 and 2016. In 2012, she was forced to pay £3,500 in installments due to alleged shortfall.
Later in 2016, she was suspended without pay from Westgate Hill and Ryton branches over a shortfall of £39,269.97 which was later increased to £41,097.37 without much explanation.
The post offices were closed, and she was given no access to either branch or her own retail businesses. Apart from Post Office ruthlessness, it was the community’s treatment that left her shocked and traumatised for life. Years have passed though the humiliation is still very fresh in Saddiq’s mind.
In a conversation with Asian Trader, Saddiq revealed, “It had a devastating effect on me and my small family. The community I once served physically attacked me. Post Office left me humiliated as well as broke.”
After abuse and taunts went through the roof and also after some people tried to enter her home which was directly above the Post Office branch, Saddiq was forced to flee from her home in the middle of the night with her children and just bare minimum essentials.
Delay, delays and more delays
Post Office victim campaigner Sir Alan Bates recently called for a March 2025 deadline for financial redress for those caught up in the Post Office scandal, saying the financial redress schemes can't be allowed to drag on for years.
Sir Bates also hinted about taking legal action, saying if the victims don’t “get an affirmation from them of a March 2025 deadline, then “other routes” will be followed.
Post Office Minister Gareth Thomas however said it would be difficult to achieve the deadline but promised that there would be “substantial progress” toward clearing the compensation claim backlog by next summer.
Talking about delays in compensation, Misra called the whole ordeal torturous and humiliating.
She said, “Seeking compensation in itself a torture. It feels like what happens with rape victim; first they took my dignity and then they make me repeat the ordeal over and over again for seeking the money that Post Office technically owes me.
“They are active in paying bonuses to themselves but when it comes to paying up to the victims, they are clearly cutting corners. We were expecting that it would take time, but we never expected that this will take this much time.”
Varchas echoed Misra’s frustration, as after all these years, his father’s compensation is nowhere in sight.
He said, “We have already seen that once a claim is submitted, post office continues to fight sub postmasters to decrease the compensation as much as the post office can. Post Office is definitely not looking to pay sub postmasters their full and fair compensation. They are continuing to fight the majority of sub postmasters and is clearly wasting a lot of valuable time, especially for the victims who are elderly, like my father, who is 70 and in poor health.
Former subpostmasters (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
“There are so many, so many people like him. Recently, another sub postmaster sadly passed away. In the back of my mind, I always pray that something like this doesn't happen with my father and I really hope that he gets to live and able to receive his compensation in his lifetime.”
However, Post Office is not making it easy for anybody, Varchas added. “It doesn't matter which background you are from, if you have got a small claim or a large claim, they are literally fighting everybody.
“I don't trust the government's assurance of next summer. I have no faith in the government, let alone the post office, when it comes to full and fair compensation. Governments just come and go. With the new Labor government also, sadly nothing has truly changed.”
Varchas is calling on the Post Office to immediately release a “£600,000 interim payment” so that people, like his ailing father, can move on in their lives.
He said, “Post office knows that a large portion of the claimants, their claims are around 1 million pounds each. Some will be less, some will be more, depending on how much the sub postmaster in question has lost. My suggestion is why not give each claimant £600,000 interim payment so at least those who have already suffered so much can go on with their lives?
“My parents, at 70 and 65, should have been retired by now if the Post Office had not ruined our lives like the way it did. My father should be given 600,000 pound interim payment to move on with this life while the rest of his claim gets processed and finalised at the earliest.”
Like others, Saddiq is also still waiting to be fully compensated from the Post Office. Frustrated at the endless wait, Saddiq stated, “The government is dragging it; maybe it is waiting for me to die. So much delay with no end in sight has re-traumatised me. They are dehumanising I cannot move on. I am a prisoner of the post office scandal.”
Saddiq said she has no faith in Thomas’ recent assurance that things will move by summer of 2025.
'Scandal within a scandal'
It is appalling that so many summers have passed and there is still no full and fair financial redress, Saddiq said, calling the delay is a "scandal within a scandal".
Saddiq however has high hopes from the ongoing public inquiry, that was established in non-statutory form in September 2020. It was converted to a statutory inquiry in June 2021.
Sir Alan Bates, Founder, Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (Photo Andrew Matthews - WPA Pool/Getty Images)
The Post Office Horizon IT inquiry is led by retired high court judge Sir Wyn Williams who is tasked with ensuring there is a public summary of the failings which occurred with the Horizon IT system at the Post Office leading to the suspension, termination of sub post masters’ contracts, prosecution and conviction of sub post masters.
The Inquiry will look to establish a clear account of the implementation and failings of the system over its lifetime (a period of over 20 years). The inquiry is in its last phase of hearing.
Saddiq said, "I believe Sir Wyn Williams and his team will provide the nation with a detailed report of what all happened. I hope for a sustainable self-sufficient post office for the future. But most importantly, those who contributed to this cover held to account.”
Vipin’s family too has high hopes from the ongoing public inquiry though they are quite shocked at some of the revelations.
Varchas said, “I think the inquiry has done a tremendous job. The lawyers, like my father’s, have also done a tremendous job though it is so sad to see that the post office, from what I've seen so far over two years, continues to deny and deflect.
"Even though I believe the inquiry will unanimously come down in the favor of sub post masters, I genuinely believe that the post office has used that the time, length of the inquiry to continue in its cover up. And I also do not believe the post office has given the post office inquiry the entire truth.
“I was quite shocked to see how some post office officials and lawyers even conducted themselves in the post office inquiry. The likes of former senior Post Office lawyer Jarnail Singh who actually do not believe that they've done anything wrong, even when evidence is shown to them.”
Varchas is demanding strict penal action against Post Office investigators as well. He informed, "My father’s post office investigator categorically knew the existence of a horizon bug in 2010 but that individual in 2011 rendered my dad for prosecution.
“The same investigator could have acknowledged that there have been complaints of a bug and should have checked back with Fujitsu but he did not. Post Office seemed to be on a mission to cover up and make it look like sub post masters’ fault.
Vipin Patel, along with wife and son Varchasanraj Patel, on the day his conviction was quashed
“Sub post masters were not only the most trusted people in the UK, not only pillars of their community, but they are also successful entrepreneurs. So it is mind boggling how, for around 20 years, the post office employees, former and current, still think, even though the court has found them wrong on numerous occasions, that these sub postmasters are guilty of something.
"Even though their names have been cleared, some Post Office officials literally live in a fantasy world," he added.
Post Office is “defending the indefensible”, said Varchas, adding that it is also buying time to waste some more.
He said, “It is also wasting taxpayers’ money on its shiny lawyers to delay and deny the poor victims of proper, full and fair compensation. I fear sadly more victims will fall ill and die simply waiting for justice.
“I just hope one day that my father can get compensated in full and fair soon so that we as a family can move on to better times. The devastation in my family and other families that I've seen sadly is catastrophic.”
Saddiq, Misra and Varchas agree that ITV’s four-part series Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which was aired in early January, changed and exemplified the chatter around the issue.
The ITV drama led to a public outcry about the treatment of hundreds of workers who were wrongly convicted and accused of theft, fraud and false accounting because of a faulty Post Office accounting system.
Varchas said, “I do believe the victims’ reputations have been restored to some extent. It will never completely wipe everything away. But at least now, the majority of British people now realises that the sub postmasters were innocent for all these years and have been badly wronged. The perception of people has changed.
“But that’s in general terms. In my father’s case, nobody in our village in Oxfordshire has even apologized for anything that they've said or done even though a lot of media flock to the village after ITV aired the show.
“Some people of my village have a huge guilt complex now and cannot even come up and say sorry for all the harm and the mud that they have thrown at us.”
Misra added, “After ITV series, the awareness level spiked and people’s attitude towards us changed. And that means a lot to us. A simple statement like ‘we are behind you, or we believe in you’ charges us up whenever we are feeling low.”
Fight for justice
Apart from compensation, it is now a fight of justice and fair system for all. It is high time someone should be held accountable and concrete actions are taken swiftly.
In Misra’s words, “Compensation is just one bit; the main thing I'm fighting for is accountability and fair justice. Whoever is behind this needs to go behind bars. Otherwise, it means we are living in a land of two laws- one where on one side, one with slightest hint of a slip is penalized and on the other, high-profile people doing huge blunder, destroying lives are being ignored so blatantly.”
Misra also criticized Met Police for not doing much on the issue despite running an investigation for the past two years.
She said, “I am so heartbroken from them. They have deployed 80 officers and there is so much factual evidence already. How much more do they need? What needs to be done immediately is to make some arrests or at least confiscate the passports. I was sent to prison directly from the court despite being eight week pregnant, but I don’t see that level of swiftness and efficiency when it comes to Post Office scandal’s real culprits.
“The government and the authorities are definitely not setting a good example. Nothing is happening.”
Misra warned that scandals like these and inaction over them would pave the way for more.
Former sub-postmistress Seema Misra (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)
She said, “If we let Post Office officials or whoever is responsible get away with it, another thing will happen. Are we waiting for another such scandal to happen? Our fight is to correct the system. I don’t want another kind of scandal to happen and innocent people to suffer again. I know the pain and I don’t want anyone to go through this kind of hell.
At the time of this conversation with Asian Trader, Misra and her family of four were on a nine-day Navratri (annual Hindu festival observed in honor of the goddess Durga) fasting and were looking forward excitedly to an auspicious Diwali celebration.
“The ordeal has been very long and very traumatic. But I feel that I am the ‘Chosen One’. Instead of wondering over ‘why me?’, I believe that the higher power, Mata Rani, wanted some of her strong kids to come forward and fight the system to correct it for everyone and also for generations to come,” she concluded.
Stories of Misra, Saddiq and Patel family is of relentless suffering, but it reflects a wider, harrowing truth of how the systemic failure of the Post Office shattered lives beyond repair. The injustice is not just in the wrongful convictions, but also in the years of torment and social humiliation these victims have faced.
Jo Taylorson
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