Anglesey: Post Office IT scam victim says he'll reject £600,000 compensation offer

Noel Thomas whose conviction for false accounting was overturned in 2021, said: “The fight will continue." Credit: Media Wales

A grandfather wrongly accused of stealing money in the Post Office IT scandal intends to "reject an offer of compensation" for the "ordeal his family and others suffered".

Noel Thomas, 76, from Anglesey was convicted for theft and false accounting along with one of more than 700 sub-postmasters.

He was wrongly accused of stealing £48,000 from the Post Office due to flawed information from the organisation’s Horizon computer system.

Mr Thomas was disqualified as a councillor, jailed for nine months and his daughter was forced to sell her home to pay legal costs.

Noel Thomas was wrongly accused of stealing £48,000 from the Post Office due to flawed information from the organisation’s computer system. Credit: Media Wales

Starting in the late 1990s, the Post Office began installing Horizon accounting software, but faults in the software led to shortfalls in branches’ accounts.

The Post Office demanded sub-postmasters cover the shortfalls, and in many cases wrongfully prosecuted them between 1999 and 2015 for false accounting or theft.

86 convictions have since been overturned and these are now to be offered £600,000 each in compensation.Mr Thomas, whose conviction for false accounting was overturned in 2021, said: “The fight will continue.

"I have friends up and down the country who lost a fortune and it’s only fair they get it back.

"One couple in Shrewsbury spent three months living in a van because they lost everything – the Post Office took it all from them.”

Mr Thomas, who lives with wife Eira in Gaerwen, spent his 60th birthday in HM Kirkham, an open prison near Blackpool. Credit: Media Wales

Kevin Hollinrake, the Post Office minister, accepted that for some people the compensation would not be enough.

He said: "What was on offer now was available with no ifs or buts."Some £21m has been paid in compensation so far to postmasters with overturned convictions.

Those who have already received initial payments or settlements for less than £600,000, will be paid the difference.Mr Thomas, who lives with wife Eira in Gaerwen, spent his 60th birthday in HM Kirkham, an open prison near Blackpool.

He said: "We sold our house and Post Office to our youngest son and moved in with our daughter in Malltraeth."It was the best thing we ever did. Although the Post Office chased our son for years, to sell the house to pay legal costs, they failed.

"Many others were not so fortunate, and lost everything."

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