Newcastle mum Shazia Saddiq said her life was "destroyed" when she was wrongly accused of stealing £40,000 in the Post Office Horizon scandal
Newcastle mum Shazia Saddiq was wrongly accused of stealing from the Westgate Hill Post Office she ran in Newcastle. (Image: Google Maps/Shazia Saddiq)
It has been seven years since Shazia Saddiq was wrongly accused of stealing from the Post Office she ran on Newcastle's Westgate Hill.
But every day the former sub-postmistress is haunted by what has lost in the Horizon IT scandal. And now the 40-year-old has been dealt with another blow at finding out she is not eligible for the government's latest compensation scheme.
Shazia, who ran both the Ryton Post Office in Gateshead and Westgate Hill Post Office in Newcastle, is among more than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses who were falsely accused by the Post Office due to faulty accounting software.
In October 2016, Shazia was suspended for 'stealing' money from the Westgate Hill branch and said she was forced to flee her home with her two children after being attacked in the street following the false accusation. Although Shazia was never charged and prosecuted by the Post Office, she says her life was "destroyed" by the scandal.
Now living in Oxford, Shazia has told Chronicle Live of her shock at the government's announcement last month that it would give £600,000 to each of those whose Horizon-related conviction has been overturned. Those without a conviction would not be eligible for this upfront payment, which means that Shazia would not be entitled to this compensation.
"The compensation is not for me, that's why I am really aggrieved," she said.
"It is for the people who got convicted. I feel like the government has just plucked this number out of the sky but then there are us [other branch managers], years on, who are still trying to get compensation, and there is nothing.
"Not enough is being done. If they can pluck this number overnight they could have settled our claims years ago. I feel like they are punishing us for speaking up about the failings."
In 2019, Shazia joined a group of 555 subpostmasters and sub-postmistresses who successfully challenged the Post Office over the accusations in the High Court. However, the government said that most of their £43 million settlement was swallowed up by legal fees.
In March, Shazia was given hope she would be compensated when the Treasury announced a new scheme that would ensure they received the same level of compensation as other sub-postmasters who had their convictions for financial crimes quashed. However, Shazia says is is yet to receive any money from this.
"My work with the Post Office wasn't to be some great businesswoman, it was to leave my children something as a single mam of two at the time - and they hounded me out of my house," Shazia said.
"They destroyed everything."
The Post Office said it doesn't comment on individual cases but said it will continue to provide compensation as quickly as possible.
A Post Office spokeswoman said: “We are in no doubt of the human cost of the scandal and continue to provide compensation as swiftly as possible, with more than £122 million paid to over 2,600 victims to date.”
The Department for Business and Trade said it understands that no compensation will ever be enough for those affected by the scandal.
A spokesman said: “We recognise that for postmasters who have had to endure hardships or even jail time no amount of compensation will ever be enough, but these payments aim to provide some sort of relief to those impacted. The GLO Compensation Scheme, which has already paid out over £20 million, gives extra compensation to people who were prosecuted but never convicted.
"Through this scheme we have been able to offer compensation within a few weeks of receiving claims, ensuring that those wrongfully impacted can get the compensation they deserve”.
A public inquiry into the Horizon scandal is likely to conclude in 2024.