Post Office manager who helped convict sub-postmasters is now handling compensation claims

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A Post Office manager who helped to wrongfully convict a sub-postmistress through the Horizon scandal is handling victims’ compensation claims.

Caroline Richards – who has labored for the Post Office for over 30 years – is reported to have performed a key position within the wrongful prosecution of former sub-postmistress Jacqueline McDonald, who was sentenced to 18 months in jail after she was convicted of stealing virtually £100,000 from her department in Lancashire.

Her conviction was overturned in 2021.

Ms Richards now works as a “senior dispute resolution manager” on the Horizon Shortfall Scheme since 2021, helping with reviewing instances in opposition to the Post Office, in keeping with the i newspaper. The job description for the position states that every one instances shall be “investigated or reviewed fairly and impartially”.

According to a court docket report within the Lancashire Evening Post, Ms Richards initiated an investigation into Ms McDonald after discovering a mismatch between the amount of money declared and the amount of money being held in her secure.

Campaigners and MPs advised the i that the revelations are “outrageous”.

Kevan Jones MP, who has campaigned on behalf of Horizon victims, stated it exhibits the Post Office “just don’t get the sensitivity of these cases” and known as for the compensation course of to be made fully unbiased.

In January, the Horizon IT inquiry was advised {that a} former assistant at Ms McDonald’s department wrote a letter of criticism to the Post Office about Ms Richards and investigator Stephen Bradshaw.

Katie Noblet complained about “the unprofessional, disgusting behaviour and actions” of the pair and stated that they got here to her administrative center in 2009 and that Mr Bradshaw was “very confrontational” and stated she couldn’t have authorized recommendation which was a “complete lie”.

There is no suggestion Ms Richards knew the Horizon IT system was defective on the time of the investigations.

An on-line public petition with different 50,000 signatures has known as on the Post Office to axe Ms Richards from the compensation scheme.

Petitioner David Innes known as her appointment an “insult to all of the 550 Post Office Staff who were wrongfully prosecuted, including all those still awaiting compensation”.

Labour MP Mr Jones advised i  that the appointment of Ms Richards to a job within the compensation scheme is “outrageous”.

“You couldn’t make it up. It shows the Post Office just don’t get it, especially the sensitivity of these cases” he added.

Earlier this 12 months, former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton wrote in an e-mail that two former postmasters who sat on the board as non-executive administrators, Saf Ismail and Elliot Jacobs, felt there was a “complete lack of respect for [postmasters]” and that the tradition was “toxic”.

Chief government Nick Read has admitted the Post Office is investigating greater than 40 instances of alleged inappropriate behaviour by current workers referring to the Horizon scandal.

A Post Office spokesperson stated: “Claims in the Horizon Shortfall Scheme are assessed by an independent advisory panel of external experts. There is a full governance process for each and every claim. Our sole aim is that every Postmaster affected by the scandal receives full and fair redress as swiftly as possible.”