Falsely imprisoned post-master calls for justice over Horizon scandal

A sub-postmaster who was imprisoned on false charges of theft has said those responsible should be imprisoned just like him.

Harjinder Butoy, who ran a Post Office in Sutton-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, was accused of stealing £208,000 and sentenced to three years in prison, of which he served 18 months.

But it was later found that a flawed computer system was behind accusations that over 700 postmasters had been stealing from the service.

Back in 2019, after a long-running campaign, the supreme court found in favour of sub-postmasters who claimed the Post Office had abused its position to unlawfully take action against people who ran branch offices.

Now, a new inquiry is underway to determine if either the Post Office or software developer Fujistu were aware of IT faults that led to mass, wrongful prosecution of postmasters.

The court will also consider compensation requests.

Harjinder Butoy says he didn't have confidence in the investigation

Speaking to ITV Central, Harjinder said the Post Office had been caught "red handed".

"I'd like to see somebody being charged, and sent to prison," he said.

"Everybody keeps talking about the police investigating it - what are you investigating? If you're investigating it, something should have been done by now."

In Shrewsbury, one former post office worker, Rubbina Shaheen, said it had been "11 years of hell" after being wrongly prosecuted, found guilty, and imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit.

"I was crying all the time," she said.

"I was so scared of what was going to happen to me, why am I here, keep on asking myself what have I done? I'm innocent - I shouldn't be here."

Another former worker, Tracy Felsted, was also imprisoned. "We lost our homes, we lost our jobs, we lost everything," she said.

"Why shouldn't they?"

Rubina Shaheen said the scandal left her 'crying all the time'

What is the Horizon scandal?

Hundreds of post office workers were prosecuted between 2000 and 2014, after information from a newly installed computer system - Horizon - suggested they may be stealing money from branches.

At the time, sub-postmasters said the system was faulty, with errors meaning that the system showed thousands of pounds worth of shortfall.

Some staff tried to make up these shortfalls using their own funds - with some even remortgaging their houses.

But an inquiry later found it was the computer system at fault - rather than any criminal behaviour on the part of Post Office staff.

The inquiry continues.