Mr Bates vs The Post Office and Beyond
At our late October meeting, East Grinstead Club were delighted to welcome Kay Linnell and Barbara Jeremiah who told about their involvement in one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, The Post Office Scandal. The case had been rumbling on for around 19 years and it took a television drama to bring it to the attention of the general public and cause universal outrage. Well over 500 sub-postmasters and postmistresses had been wrongly accused of embezzling huge sums of money, the loss of all of which was due to errors within the Post Office computer system. Some of the accused had lost their homes, their life’s savings, their livelihoods, their health and in some cases their lives.
Kay, a forensic accountant together with her business partner Barbara, both of whom are members of Winchester Club, worked tirelessly in support of and as advisors to the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance campaign. Kay had recently given evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry and both she and Barbara emphasised that much remained to be done to ensure that all the original 555 victims received the financial redress they are due and have been promised.
Although many of us had seen the TV drama, our eyes were certainly opened as to the scale of the scandal and its devastating and long-lasting effects on all those wrongly accused. Members are encouraged to write to their MPs stressing the horrendous nature of the Post Office case. Claims should be settled urgently since settlement was confirmed in the October Budget
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