Post Office scandal victims to be exonerated under new Rishi Sunak law | UK News

Rishi Sunak has announced new legislation to exonerate and pay £75,000 in compensation to the sub-postmasters wrongfully convicted in the Horizon scandal.

More than 700 sub-postmasters received criminal convictions for allegations such as theft and false accounting after faulty IT used by the Post Office made it appear money was being stolen.

So far only 93 have had their names cleared.

The monumental miscarriage of justice was brought into the spotlight by ITV’s drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.

Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief, faced calls to return her £3 million in bonuses in pension after she bowed to pressure and handed back her CBE.

More than one million people signed a petition demanding she lose the gong over the wrongful convictions of fraud while she was in charge.

Ex-postmasters have spoken out about their convictions, saying it ‘destroyed them mentally’.

Parmod Kalia gave the Post Office £22,000 of his own money after the faulty Horizon software made it seem money was missing from his accounts.

But he was still sent to prison for six months in 2001, causing his relationship with his family to breakdown and to be shunned from his community.

‘It destroyed me mentally, I have copped it up within myself – a buildup of not knowing what it was, no one to talk to, no one to discuss it with,’ he told ITV.

‘I have lost 21 years of my life, no earning capacity. I have had a breakdown with my family, my wife, my children, shame in the community.

‘I have attempted suicide on three occasions.’

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