Post Office victim says he couldn't afford kid's uniform after scandal
A Post Office worker has revealed the scandal saw him struggle to send his children to school.
During an appearance on BBC Breakfast, Scott Darlington, a former postmaster for Alderley Edge in Cheshire, has revealed he was forced to pay a substantial sum back to the organisation. Scott ran the Post Office in the leafy Cheshire village between 2005 and 2010 before he was wrongly prosecuted and lost his job over an accounting discrepancy.
After four years in the role, he noticed something wasn't right but the initial concerns were not that major. But in 2008, there was a huge discrepancy of £1,700 which he raised with the Post Office. He was subsequently ordered to pay it back and "no investigation" was made into the shortfall.
Scott Darlington shared his tragic experience (BBC)In 2010, Darlington was convinced of false accounting when the system at his post office suggested that £35,000 was missing. He subsequently lost his job, was riddled with debt and struggled to get a job. But it also affected his personal life and he has now revealed he struggled to afford to buy his daughter's school uniform.
He told the BBC: "I couldn't afford to pay for my daughter's school uniform. I suffered awful stigma, embarrassment and financial distress ever since. I'm glad that things have come to a head and we're able to speak about it." Scott went on to reveal his barrister encouraged him to plead guilty. He said: "I wanted to plead not guilty but was advised to plead guilty.
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"The post office held all the cards. I wanted to plead not guilty, but because we couldn't get any information. The barrister said to me, if you plead not guilty, [you're] probably going to go to prison. So I had to plead guilty. I'm in the newspapers as pleading guilty. I just presumed everybody thought I'd have my hands in the till."
Scott went on to say: "Turning up to pick my daughter from school parents had seen me in the papers pleading guilty. I'm supposed to be the postmaster and you know, I hadn't done anything. How am I supposed to get out of this situation? It's taken all these years to get to this point."
He was joined by seven other former sub-masters (BBC)During the broadcast, Minister for Post Offices Kevin Hollinrake was questioned by eight subpostmasters who were keen to be given updates about the scandal. He explained that those who were forced to shell out thousands would still be receiving their compensation. However, he failed to confirm whether Fujitsu, the company behind the Horizon software would continue to be given government contracts.
Addressing Paula Vennells, the subpostmasters agreed that she should be forced to hand back her bonuses. Hollinrake failed to answer when questioned on whether she should hand the thousands back but stated he was one of the first to call for her to hand back her CBE.
He said: "Well, I was I think one of the first people to say that Paula Vennells should hand back her CBE which I think she's agreed to do voluntarily." When grilled on her bonuses, he commented: "As I say I think we need to go through due process, I know people will not be happy with that.
"I think that's the system, we don't do this trial by media. We do this by running a process of inquiry all those answers and all those sanctions and enforcement actions can be taken at the end of the inquiry when we know the actual evidence, who's responsible for the conclusions, and who was specifically responsible. Was it the Post Office? Was it Fujitsu? Was it? Was it individuals within the post office?" Broadcaster Jon Kay then fumed: "Was it government?!"
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