Oldest Post Office victim in tears as she insists scandal 'ruined her life'
Two victims of the Post Office Scandal, Betty Brown, believed to be the oldest victim, and Lee Castleton, who was portrayed by Will Mellor in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, appeared on Good Morning Britain today.
Betty, 91, who appeared down the line alongside Richard Holden, MP ploughed over £100,00 into the post office she ran with her late husband.
Telling Ben Shephard and Charlotte Hawkins about the devastating ordeal, Betty said, “It’s just totally destroyed my life, totally - from being a happy person to someone who is absolutely worried sick and devastated. It took everything away and spoiled everything.”
Oldest Post Office victim in tears as she insists scandal 'ruined her life' (ITV)Talking about using the faulty Horizon computer system, Betty said, “There were shortfalls every week, shortfalls of £1500 at least and you were told that you had to pay this in immediately and if you didn’t pay it in, you would be sacked.
"So you had no option - it was your mistake and you were the only person making mistakes and I was too old to be in the job, it was time I retired and got out because they wanted new blood in the office, who understood technology and I was far too old for that, so they were going to change everything for me.”
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On putting over £100,000 of her and her husband’s money in, Betty revealed, “That was our life savings that my husband and I had worked all our lives for.”
She continued, “To know the Post Office was deliberately doing this is absolutely appalling. Every week I had a standing arrangement with my manager that I would phone at 8.30 every morning to tell them the result of my balance. There was no question of cover up, there was no question of trying to hide anything or steal anything. They kept saying, ‘We know you’re not stealing it and we know you’re putting the money in every week and we know you’re not falsifying the accounts. But we just don’t know where the money’s going.’
“When they knew that, they had a responsibility to start there and find out where this was happening instead of hounding me and telling me, ‘You’re the only one’ and ‘You’re the worst office in the UK. There’s an office in London, they have a blackboard on the wall and the 10 worst offices in the UK are listed on it and you’re either the second or third one. So how does that make you feel, Betty? That’s how bad you are.’
Betty is the oldest victim of the Post Office scandal (ITV)Charlotte asked if any amount of money could make up for the trauma caused, to which Betty replied: “They could keep the money, they could stuff it. I would rather have my husband here and they have deprived us of our lives.”
On those held accountable for the trauma caused, Betty revealed, “I would like them to see and go through what I’ve gone through. Since the year 2000, it’s 23 years, I would like to see them stripped of all the big bonuses they took, all the large salaries they took, all the fancy £2 million homes they’ve got and give them to subpostmasters and do something for it. I don’t know what they were trying to do to get all that money, what they’ve done with it? They’ve run an organisation into the ground. They’ve done nothing for the Post Office… They’re a disgrace to the country.”
Lee, who was eventually ordered to pay £347,000 and as a result of the case had to close his shop, said, “The peoples’ lives destroyed in this, the 555 all together, the stories are absolutely atrocious. People did this to people.
“This is started by a computer programme but the actual events took place between people to people and this is the underpinning of all of this - the lack of humanity, the lack of understanding.”
On each of the 555 accused subpostmasters being told they were the only ones, Lee told Ben and Charlotte, “It must have been scripted, it must have been a business decision to do that.”
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