10 January 2024 , 09:31
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A sub-postmaster who was wrongfully convicted of stealing £50,000 from the Post Office fears he will die before he gets justice.
Sami Sabet was among the 700 people across the country convicted of fraud or theft because of the company’s faulty computer system. The 68-year-old suffered a heart attack, developed type two diabetes and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the years since his wrongful conviction.
Mr Sabet, now retired, worries he might die before getting justice for the trauma of the last 20 years. The horrors of the Post Office Horizon scandal have been laid bare in ITV docudrama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which concluded on Thursday. It highlighted the dispute around alleged problems with a faulty accounting system which led to more than 700 sub-postmasters being prosecuted between 1999 and 2015.
Speaking today from his home in Shoreham, East Sussex, Mr Sabet told the Brighton Argus: "I have been fearing this all the time, I have said it and written to people about dying before I get justice. I told my solicitors at one point that I'd had enough, this is affecting my health considerably. Just do whatever is best. I had enough of trying to find information, I have had enough of this wrangling and haggling."
Mr Sabet owned three post offices in Shoreham and Brighton, East Sussex, but became victim of the Post Office Horizon scandal and in 2009 received a 12-month suspended prison sentence after admitting two charges of fraud.
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He continued: "This last year alone I have had four operations on my right eye. Four operations which resulted in me not being able to see very well from that eye. Already, the heart operation caused me to have severe peripheral vision loss, rendering me severely sight impaired. All these things are affecting my health, I still wake up at night thinking about it. It just brought everything back. This is a very great possibility that I could die at any time without this process concluding."
Mr Sabet, now retired, worries he might die before getting justice for the trauma of the last 20 years (The Argus/Sussex News and Pictures)Mr Sabet is one of 93 sub-postmasters whose wrongful convictions were overturned. His case was heard at the Court of Appeal in 2021, more than years after the scandal. Yet, he estimates that in total he lost £2.8 million from his three post offices which he ran in 2003.
Just after 2005, his post offices inexplicably started losing money. Mr Sabet said he ended up paying more than £100,000 to Post Office Limited and was relentlessly accused of stealing. He used credit cards, took out loans, borrowed money off family and even worked as a petrol station toilet cleaner to stay afloat during this time. He felt pressured to plead guilty at Lewes Crown Court in 2009 to avoid getting a custodial prison sentence.
But Mr Sabet did not want to accept the government’s £600,000 compensation offer last year, and said there was “no value” that can be put on the losses and pain he and other sub-postmasters have been through. Mr Sabet praised the "incredible reaction from the public" to ITV’s series Mr Bates vs The Post Office which was aired last week, starring Toby Jones, Monica Dolan and Julie Hesmondhalgh.