Post Office scandal: Former postmaster fears time is running out for compensation

• Watch this report by ITV Meridian's Rachel Hepworth

A former village postmaster from Oxfordshire says being wrongly convicted of crimes including theft, fraud and false accounting has left him in ill health and unable to work.

Vipin Patel who ran the post office in Horspath was one of hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly prosecuted between 1999 and 2015, because of a computing error.

It has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history, with many victims financially ruined and reputations destroyed.

Some even served prison sentences and others have since died.

Vipin Patel says he is worried time is running out for him and others who are seeking meaningful compensation.

It has now been 20 years since Vipin's battle with the Post Office.

He was found guilty of stealing £75,000, but the faulty Horizon IT system was to blame.

Jo Hamilton from North Hampshire was another postmistress who had her conviction quashed.

She said: "I don't know how you could put someone from Government in our shoes and make them see what it's like to be on the other end of it."

The lack of progress in compensating victims has led the Inquiry Chairman to intervene.

Sir Wyn Williams said: "Many hundreds of people suffered disastrous consequences by reason of the misuse of data from Horizon, and thousands more suffered very significantly."

He said more than 400 applications for compensation had yet to be resolved and recommended that the Government's own deadline of August next year be extended.

In a short statement, the Government said it would review Sir Wyn's report and respond in due course.

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