A group representing almost 1,000 sub-postmasters across the UK has told Sky News the Post Office Horizon system is still causing unexplained shortfalls, which are wrecking businesses.
Voice of the Postmaster (VotP), which was set up to campaign for current staff, alleges the discredited IT software is still generating mysterious missing money.
Marlene Wood, postmistress at Comrie Crieff Post Office in Perthshire, alleges the apparent shortfalls she has been facing are partly linked to Horizon and are eating into her profits.
The 53-year-old, who has been in charge of the branch for more than four years, told Sky News: “My business is failing. I will go under in part due to the discrepancies that I pay back.
“There is no computer system that is fail-safe. There continues to be bugs.”
Ms Wood claimed there was one discrepancy of a couple of hundred pounds.
She said: “I spent the night going through the safe, transactions, notes and couldn’t find anything.
“I went to bed and woke up, redeclared my cash amount and there was no discrepancy. It had vanished.
“I am not saying Horizon is to blame for everything but not to the degree that you go to bed and it can magically disappear.”
Ms Wood, who said she is emotionally distressed, estimates she is around £2,000 in the red and is facing losing her livelihood.
She also said her “marriage is gone” and has had to borrow money from her mother.
Ms Wood added: “If it does go under, I am going to have nowhere to live as the house is above the Post Office.
“I will be sleeping on my mum’s couch at the age of 53 with no job, no credit rating and owing, potentially, thousands of pounds. That’s the reality of having a Post Office.”
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2024-01-19 17:43:00
Sky News is a British 24-hour information television channel, the first in Europe of its kind, launched on February 5, 1989 by the British Sky Broadcasting Company.