A disabled victim of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal has been offered 15 per cent of her compensation claim.
Janet Skinner was sentenced to nine months in prison after being wrongly convicted of false accounting in 2007 when the faulty software picked up a shortfall in her branch accounts.
The mother of two, who had previously enjoyed good health, lost her home, served two months in prison and was temporarily paralysed from the stress of the ordeal.
The former sub-postmistress has now rejected an offer of financial redress which falls well short of her claim.
She told the BBC: “I cried and I cried… It’s trauma on top of trauma.”
Ms Skinner was one of more than 900 sub-postmasters who were wrongly prosecuted for stealing based on incorrect information supplied by the Horizon computer system.
Simon Goldberg, representing Ms Skinner, said the Government was battling the claims “tooth and nail” in the courts.
“They’ve taken a particularly cruel approach to Janet’s case,” he added.
Ms Skinner pleaded guilty to false accounting in 2006 after £59,000 went missing from her branch in Bransholme, Hull, later revealing that her lawyer, Karl Turner, now a Labour MP in Hull, had advised her that this would mean no custodial sentence.
“It was against everything I knew was true, but I followed the advice. That was a terrible mistake,” she later recalled.
She was convicted and transported to New Hall prison in Wakefield, Yorkshire, where Rose West, wife of late serial killer Fred West, is a current inmate.
“I was on suicide watch for a couple of weeks. I’d lost everything,” she later told The Sun, adding: “There were women in there for violent crimes, for life. Drugs were rife.”
Ms Skinner was released in April 2007 but was instructed to wear an ankle monitor and abide by a curfew for the remainder of her sentence.
A year after her release, the Post Office pursued her for failing to pay the “proceeds of crime” which landed her back in the dock.
After the matter was eventually resolved, she suffered a neurological collapse which rendered her paralysed from the neck down.
“My immune system had broken down, basically my body attacked itself,” she said.
Ms Skinner learnt to walk again after two years but ongoing health problems mean she remains unable to work.
“I’m in pain all the time. It’s changed my life completely,” she said, adding that her son helps her visit the bathroom.
Ms Skinner had her conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal in April 2021.
Janet Skinner (centre) celebrates with family after her conviction was overturned in 2021 - Yui Mok/PA
After submitting five medical reports, her legal team said the Post Office accepted earlier this year that her ill health had been triggered by extreme stress.
The size of Ms Skinner’s claim, based on loss of earnings and future care costs, is thought to be significant but the exact figures have not been revealed.
Compensation of more than £1bn has already been handed out to more than 8,000 victims, with the bulk being uncontested fixed payouts of either £75,000 or £600,000.
The Department for Business and Trade has recently assumed responsibility for managing compensation to sub-postmasters whose convictions were overturned by the courts.
A spokesman said: “We pay tribute to all the postmasters including Janet who have suffered from the Horizon scandal, which is why the amount paid to postmasters has increased fivefold to over £1bn as part of our ongoing commitment to deliver justice to victims as swiftly as possible.
“While we do not comment on individual cases, we take every effort to make full and fair offers to all claimants, and an independent dispute resolution process is available to all applicants who are not content with their offer.”