Tributes were paid to a former sub-postmistress from Rotherham as the Post Office Inquiry hearings draw to a close after more than two years
On Monday (16 December), the day began with sad news as Chair Sir Wyn Williams announced the passing of former sub-postmistress Margaret Boston.
Margaret ran the Brecks Post Office in Rotherham for 25 years. She began the job in 1984, and in 2011, the post office was taken over by her daughter.โ
She was a core participant in the inquiry and one of the 555 claimants in the Bates litigation.
Sir Wyn shared that her family took some comfort in knowing she had received full compensation before her passing.
Between 1999 and 2015 over 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted for theft due to faulty data generated by the Horizon computer system, which has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in the UK.
The Post Office itself pursued the majority of cases, taking 700 people to court between 1999 and 2015, while another 283 cases were brought by other organizations, including the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Many sub-postmasters were imprisoned for theft and false accounting, while others faced severe financial ruin.
In 2017, a group of 555 sub-postmasters filed a lawsuit against the Post Office. By 2019, the Post Office agreed to a ยฃ58 million compensation settlement, though a significant portion was consumed by legal costs.
