'I've lost everything - the Post Office scandal left me suicidal and bankrupt'

07 January 2024 , 11:41

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'I will never return to the person I used to be,' says Tony Downey

A sub-postmaster wrongly accused of stealing £35,000 from the Post Office says the scandal left him suicidal.

Tony Downey, 56, was forced into bankruptcy by apparent account shortfalls created by the faulty Horizon computer system and he had to sell his home and business. Tony, speaking as ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office highlights the fiasco, said: “I have lost everything. It has impacted every aspect of my life and I will never return to the person I used to be.”

Tony was among hundreds of Post Office workers wrongly branded thieves and fraudsters by the IT disgrace, which led to 230 people being jailed in one of Britain’s greatest miscarriages of justice. He spoke out as it emerged the Post Office is now under criminal investigation over the wrongful prosecutions – and a petition to strip former PO boss Paula Vennells of her CBE has hit 750,000 signatures.

Tony's family in 2001

Tony was never convicted because he covered the money mistakenly said to have gone missing – but the strain ruined his life. Tony bought a village branch in Hawkshead, Cumbria, in 2001 for £80,000 with a loan guaranteed against his in-laws’ house. Quickly he began having problems with the Horizon system and from 2004 he was seeing shortfalls of thousands of pounds every month. Tony took out credit cards and used his overdraft to try to make the numbers add up.

His accountant said the problem must be his “if the Post Office says so” and Tony would go over his books until midnight and even quizzed staff on suspicion of theft. He admits: “I started to find the role very difficult. I didn’t want to admit that I was incompetent. My confidence was at an all-time low. It was extremely frustrating.” By 2007 he had run out of cash and was facing a “shortfall” of £7,000. The business owner suffered a mental breakdown and, racked by suicidal thoughts, sold his branch for £100,000 – around £40,000 less than its estimated value – and his home.

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Tony's former branch in Hawkshead

He said: “I was ashamed everything had failed and it was my fault. We had to pay off our business loan as my mother-in-law’s home was at risk. The remaining £35,000 was used to repay suppliers and catch up with arrears. We paid what we could, and there wasn’t a penny left.”

Tony and his wife Caroline eventually filed for bankruptcy and, filled with shame, moved to France with their daughter, who was then 11. Tony said: “People in our area assumed we had stolen money and our name was rotten. My confidence was shattered and I was never able to recover.”

Unable to work due to the trauma, Tony eventually moved to a rented flat in Alicante, on Spain’s Costa Blanca, where he gets by on £120-a-week incapacity benefit. He said: “We had no option but to go abroad to escape everything, because I couldn’t function living in England. I needed to be as far away as possible from the community that thought I had let them down.”

Mr Bates vs The Post Office

Now battling for compensation, Tony is impressed by ITV drama Mr Bates for bringing the issue to light. But he adds: “The reality is even more horrific. In my scheme alone there are around 2,800 applicants and around 600 haven’t had an offer.” Tony agrees that ex-boss Ms Vennells should be stripped of her CBE, saying: “Her keeping it makes a mockery of the system.” He added: “I went for 15 years not knowing anything about the scandal. I convinced myself it was my fault our business failed. It has been extremely difficult to comprehend so many years later that I was not alone and not to blame.”

Yesterday it was revealed the Met Police are looking at “potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions relating to monies recovered from sub-postmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions”. The Post Office said it had made £138million in compensation offers to around 2,700 postmasters. A spokesman added: “We are doing all we can to right the wrongs of the past.”

Patrick Hill