Horizon Scandal: Former Anglesey sub-postmistress contemplated suicide after investigation

• ITV Wales' Ian Lang reports from Anglesey.

A former sub-postmistress from Anglesey says the investigation into an alleged shortfall at her Post Office made her life hell and she even contemplated suicide.

Lorraine Williams, 57, watched Stephen Bradshaw giving evidence as part of the Horizon Inquiry this week. He has been employed at the Post Office since 1978.

Mr Bradshaw denied acting like a "mafia gangster" when interrogating sub-postmasters, insisting his investigations had been conducted in a "professional" manner.

But counsel to the inquiry Julian Black read him testimony from several aggrieved sub-postmasters.

Mrs Williams said she was wrongly convicted of false accounting in 2011 and the investigation that followed was traumatising.

She said she hid in her house and did not want to come out.

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She told ITV Wales: "I was in the car one day and I nearly went over the Menai Bridge, to commit suicide, because I thought there's no way out of this.

"The only people who did believe me were my family."

Ms Williams took over her Post Office in April 2009 and just before Christmas 2010 started experiencing power cuts and issues with her figures.

She said: "I phoned the Post Office to start with to say I was having problems with the electricity and it was affecting the system and they didn't want to know. They told me to get an electrician in to sort it."

In a bid to get to the bottom of the problem, she phoned the Horizon system helpdesk only to be told 'it will sort itself out'.

"Every time I was balancing it started on like £2,000 down. It was doubling," she said.

"That started in February, I was too ashamed to tell anyone, my family, because I used to be a head cashier in a well-known retail store so I was used to working with figures, numbers cash and everything.

"So I just thought because you only balance once a month, the big balance, I thought it will be better next time but on the 3rd of June, 2011, 10.30 am, the auditors turned up, took the keys off me."

She was told she was down £14,666 exactly.

Suspended, she couldn't believe what was happening and said it was "devastating".

Ms Williams said: "I begged and begged for them to get somebody to run the Post Office because I was still running the little retail shop because where I live in Llanddaniel, a little village, buses hardly went through and we had quite a few elderly people who depended on getting their pensions."

On 30 June she attended the Royal Mail department at Station Road in Bangor and was interviewed under caution.

Ms Williams says that is when she realised how serious things had become. She said: "They searched my vehicle, then they followed me home to my home at the time to search my property which they didn't, they just sat talking to me and said 'where is this money?'

"They went through my bank statements looking for everything, looking for evidence but there was nothing, obviously, because I had not stolen it."

"Between June and my first court hearing in Holyhead in October I got weekly phone calls asking if I 'Had I found the money? Where was the money?

"And then I remember on the 16th of September 2011, before the first court hearing I had a phone call from Steven Bradshaw asking if I'd managed to remortgage my house to try and pay the money I had supposedly stolen.

"I was thinking what have I done? What have I done wrong with the system? I haven't got the money. Nobody will believe me because I am just a little person with the Post Office against me."

Ms Williams was afraid she would end up behind bars. She said: “I nearly ended up in jail, if I hadn’t pleaded guilty to false accounting. That was the deal with me, we’ll drop the theft charge as long as you do false accounting, and plead guilty to that.

"I got an 18-month suspended sentence with a year’s supervision and 200 hours unpaid work.

"I remember the first day going to probation and the lady looked at me and said 'Well, you can’t work in a charity shop after what you’ve done.”

"And I had to go there, I was supposed to go weekly, then monthly, but I had to go there weekly because I was breaking down all the time. I couldn’t cope. And I was not allowed to tell them that I was innocent.” 

The stress of the situation has taken its toll on her loved ones and has also had a detrimental on her health. She said: “It’s affected me emotionally, my health is really bad now. [I’m] diabetic type two. I suffer badly with alopecia - not only alopecia but it’s scarring alopecia which means once my hair is gone it’ll not come back.

"I suffer badly with my nerves and depression. I’ve had problems with eating, with my throat. It’s all caused by stress.” 

She was told she was the only one experiencing a problem with her Horizon System and now feels huge relief since the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office has revealed the extent of the scandal.

Ms Williams said: "Now I have found out I am not the only one it is amazing, I cannot believe how many people have gone through the same thing as I have."

She wants those responsible "held accountable" for what has happened. And said: “Will they [victims] get paid by the end of the year? Are they going to be exonerated?

"Is he [Rishi Sunak] doing this because there’s an election? I don’t know. But someone has to be held accountable for this. They can’t just sweep it under the carpet.” 

Fujitsu told ITV Wales it would not comment on the claims made by Lorraine Williams but a spokesperson did issue a statement with regards to the Horizon system.

They said: “The current Post Office Horizon IT statutory Inquiry is examining complex events stretching back over 20 years to understand who knew what, when, and what they did with that knowledge. 

"The Inquiry has reinforced the devastating impact on postmasters’ lives and that of their families, and Fujitsu has apologised for its role in their suffering.

"Fujitsu is fully committed to supporting the Inquiry in order to understand what happened and to learn from it. Out of respect for the Inquiry process, it would be inappropriate for Fujitsu to comment further at this time.”

ITV Wales has asked the UK Government and the Post Office for a response.

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