An Investigation Into The Post Office Issue Has Found That It Has Damaged Lives

According to a prominent lawyer, the Post Office crisis, in which sub-postmasters were wrongfully convicted of fraud, has wrecked lives.

Former sub-postmasters and mistresses' stories, according to Barrister Jason Beer QC, should be at the center of any investigation.

"Families were torn apart, lives were damaged, and families were made homeless or impoverished," he said.

In British legal history, the instances represent the greatest widespread miscarriage of justice.

Due to a weakness in the Horizon accounting IT system, more than 700 sub-postmasters were falsely charged of theft, fraud, and false accounting between 2000 and 2014.

The investigation, which is anticipated to last until the end of the year, will look into whether the Post Office was aware of IT system flaws and how employees handled the blame.

So far, the identities of 72 previous sub-postmasters have been cleared.

Sir Wyn Williams, the retired High Court judge who is overseeing the inquiry, thanked the 50 to 60 witnesses he expects to hear oral testimony from in the coming weeks in his opening remarks.

Sir Wyn said he wanted to know "the scope and character of the devastation" that had been done to so many people.

"Without the witnesses who have consented to give up their valuable time to publicly relive what must be very unpleasant memories and incidents, these hearings would not be taking place at all."

On Monday, Baljit Sethi was the first witness to testify.

During his presentation, he discussed his two-decade career, during which he successfully ran two branches near Romford, Essex, with his wife Anjana, using paper accounts.

One branch had no problems after Horizon was implemented, but the second had a £17,000 hole in their accounts, which they were asked to cover out of their own pocket. Despite the fact that the Sethis were never charged, they were forced to endure a financial and emotional nightmare.