Former NI sub-postmaster to receive £600k payout

A former sub-postmaster from Belfast who was wrongly convicted of fraud as a result of the Post Office IT scandal is to receive £600,000 in compensation.

The payout is the maximum available under the redress scheme set up to compensate people caught up in the UK-wide accounting scandal.

The man has not been identified but his solicitor Victoria Trainor described the award as a "total vindication".

"For 15 years he had to live with the shame and indignity of having a conviction for crimes he never committed," she said.

Ms Trainor, from the Belfast firm KRW Law, said the settlement "helps remove the big stain against his name".

The man was among more than 900 sub-postmasters from across the UK who were wrongly prosecuted for offences like theft and false accounting during the scandal.

Faulty software made it appear that money was missing from Post Office branches when in reality no thefts had occurred.

The software system - known as Horizon - was developed by the Japanese company Fujitsu, for tasks such as accounting and stocktaking.

Horizon was introduced by the Post Office in 1999.

The Belfast man was charged with fraud and after taking legal advice he initially pleaded guilty to seven counts of false accounting.

He received a suspended prison sentence and was ordered to pay back £1,500 allegedly stolen from the Post Office.

But following the scandal over Horizon's defects, the man's convictions were quashed in September last year.

In December he received an interim compensation payment of £200,000 from the for the wrongful convictions under the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme.

KRW Law announced on Wednesday that their client has now secured final settlement of £600,000.

He is believed to be among the first recipients, perhaps even the first, to secure the maximum available payment.

"Like so many of the other victims it has been utterly depressing for him to live with this kind of stigma," Ms Trainor said.

"Whilst no amount of money will ever compensate him for the ordeal he went through, the pay out is certainly life enhancing and allows him to move on with his life."