MP calls for action over "terrible injustice" after Ashfield post master’s ‘life was destroyed’ by 'wrong conviction'

Ashfield’s MP has called for action over the "terrible injustice" faced by a Sutton dad who was among 732 Post Office employees accused of stealing.
Dale Spridgeon
By Dale Spridgeon
Published 1st Mar 2022, 12:48 BST
Updated 1st Mar 2022, 13:09 BST
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Harjinder Butoy ran the Forest Side sub-post office in Sutton with his wife Balbinder. He was jailed for three years and four months in 2008 after being wrongly convicted of taking £203,000.

The dad-of-three’s conviction was finally overturned at the Court of Appeal last year.

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He later described his ‘terrible’ ordeal in prison, where he lost more than six stones and was ‘stressed every day’.

Lee Anderson Ashfield and Eastwood MP brings up the case in ParliamentLee Anderson Ashfield and Eastwood MP brings up the case in Parliament
Lee Anderson Ashfield and Eastwood MP brings up the case in Parliament

Between 2000 and 2014, the Post Office prosecuted sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses based on information taken from the Horizon computer system, installed in post offices in 1999 for transactions, accounting and stocktaking.

Some employed were later imprisoned for false accounting and theft, many financially ruined, shunned by their communities, while some have since died.

After 20 years campaigners, their cases were reconsidered after it was found that the Japanese company Fujitsu developed system had bugs.

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Replying to Mar Anderson was MP Paul Scully for Sutton and Cheam who is the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Minister for London, and is the Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour MarketsReplying to Mar Anderson was MP Paul Scully for Sutton and Cheam who is the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Minister for London, and is the Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets
Replying to Mar Anderson was MP Paul Scully for Sutton and Cheam who is the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Minister for London, and is the Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets

The cases were overturned leaving the Post Office with a £1b compensation bill, picked up by the Government.

Speaking in the Commons on Thursday, Lee Anderson MP called for those responsible to be “brought to justice”.He told Parliament: “It has taken Mr Butoy 14 years to clear his name, he is bankrupt, he can’t get a job, it has destroyed his life.

“Now compensation is one thing, but when are the people responsible for this going to be brought to justice?”

Responding in the Commons, MP Paul Scully, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets) said

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Harjinder Butoy outside the Court of Appeal after his conviction was quashed. Picture from Hudgell Solicitors.Harjinder Butoy outside the Court of Appeal after his conviction was quashed. Picture from Hudgell Solicitors.
Harjinder Butoy outside the Court of Appeal after his conviction was quashed. Picture from Hudgell Solicitors.

“...that is exactly why I set up an inquiry with Sir Wyn Williams to get answers to this.

“I know the department for prosecutions has been keeping this in abeyance, as well to be able to investigate, but that will come up with the answers and whatever those answers are, legal proceedings or whatever will flow from that.”

Highlighting the debate on his Facebook page, Mr Anderson wrote: “This was a terrible Injustice. Hundreds of Post Office owners were wrongly found guilty of stealing money due to a faulty computer program.

"A Post Master in Ashfield was sent to prison, yes, compensation is being paid, but money alone is not enough.”

See the video debate here.

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