Post Office tried to 'hush up' Ellesmere Port case, inquiry hears

The ongoing Horizon IT public inquiry heard on Friday, April 26 the case of Martin Griffiths, an experienced subpostmaster at the Hope Farm branch in Great Sutton. He took his own life in 2013 after being blamed on large shortfalls which he said were down to software errors.

Jason Beer KC, lead counsel to the inquiry, questioned former business improvement director Angela van den Bogerd at the inquiry about the case, presenting email correspondence shown on screens.

Mr Griffiths wrote to Post Office agent contract manager Glenn Chester in July 2013, explaining he had been "accused of wrongful accounting", to more than £39k between February 2012-May 2013, "an average of £600 per week".

He added: "This surely cannot be correct, but the notifications from the Post Office state that this is the case," and his plans for retirement had to be postponed, while the "financial strain" on him and his family was "devastating".

Armed robbery

Mr Griffiths was notified he was to be sacked from the Post Office branch that month. His mother Doreen Griffiths subsequently wrote a letter to Mr Chester on July 31 to say she and her husband had been providing financial support for the "so-called shortages", her son "has been under severe pressure" and said the sacking was "very harsh".

The inquiry heard Mr Griffiths' parents had been inputting "tens of thousands of pounds" from their life savings to "balance the books".

Mr Beer said there had been a £50k armed robbery at the Hope Farm Post Office branch on May 2 that year, where two masked men raided the branch, one with a sledgehammer and the other with some kind of metal bar. Mr Griffiths was hit on his left hand during the robbery. The robbers were later caught and jailed for eight years.

He added the Post Office initially held Mr Griffiths "entirely culpable" for the robbery "for breaching procedures", ordering him to repay £38k (about £15k had been recovered from the robbers). That amount was later reduced to £7,500.

Mr Griffiths attempted suicide on September 23, 2013. He was taken to hospital and sadly died three weeks later.

'Arrogant and uncontrolled'

Mr Beer showed an email sent by Alan Bates of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance group that day, forwarding "a prime example of the thuggery being exerted on defenceless subpostmasters...by arrogant and uncontrolled Post Office personnel".

In it, Mr Bates forwarded correspondence from a relative of Mr Griffiths, explaining what Mr Griffiths had done, adding he had "clearly not been himself" after being "sent for...to attend a meeting with the crown post office personnel".

Mr Bates asked: "Why did POL [Post Office Limited] have to hound him to the point of trying to take his own life?

"If POL cannot control their personnel, then the very least they can do is authorise and insist on a subpostmaster taking legal representation with them to any meeting with POL.

"I am very, very angry about this, and as per the wishes of the family I will be contacting many of the media contacts we have built up over the years."

Angela van den Bogerd. Picture: Post Office Horizon IT inquiry.

Mr Bates copied the email to several recipients, including Ms van den Bogerd. In the email chain that follows, Post Office communications director at the time Mark Davies wrote: "Given the potential media element please can we line up a specialist media lawyer in case we need urgent advice this evening?"

Mr Beer asked Ms van den Bogerd: "So the immediate reaction, you agree, was not 'is Martin Griffiths all right? What about his health?' was it?"

'Brand reputation'

Ms van den Bogerd: "Not at this point in this email chain, no."

"The immediate reaction was not 'what can we, the Post Office do, to help this man's family', was it?"

"Not at this point."

"What about his wife and his children? What about his elderly parents? What about his sister? Should we get somebody down to the hospital? That didn't happen, did it? No, the first thing was, 'let's get a media lawyer'. Is that what it was like, working in this organisation? It was about brand reputation?"

Ms van den Bogerd replied she didn't think getting a media lawyer was "the first thought". She added: "There was definitely consideration in everything that we did around PR and the [communications] element."

'Disgusting'

In September 2014, Mr Griffiths daughter Lauren Griffiths wrote an email to Ms van den Bogerd to say the family were "disgusted" with the treatment they had received from the Post Office.

The email added: "We hold the Post Office solely and wholly responsible for what happened to him. As I am sure you can imagine, our family has had an extremely tough year, with what I consider no support from the Post Office.

"My mum cannot work in the shop of the Post Office due to the severe ill feeling she holds for it.

"I cannot comprehend how our family has not been supported or compensated this past year.

"I understand that you are putting what you discussed with my mum yesterday in writing to her. It appears from what I have heard that you are offering the £140k 'compensation payment' on the condition that we drop any action or legal recourse with the Post Office Ltd for any further compensation for its wrongdoing.

"No amount of financial compensation could replace the fact that the Post Office has taken our dad away from our family but simply put, £140k 'compensation' for our dad's life is simply disgusting."

Ms van den Bogerd told the inquiry £140k was the 'loss of office' sum for a subpostmaster handing over to a new postmaster. She said Mr Griffiths, being on notice for his contract expiring, would no longer have been eligible for that, so she 'went back' to the situation before then.

Ms van den Bogerd added it was "never the intention" the £140k was a life compensation package, adding she had met several members of the family to discuss matters.

'Staged payments'

Email advice from Rodric Williams presented to Ms van den Bogerd in January 2015 on the settlement agreement informed her the agreement was on condition Mr Griffiths' family did not pursue legal claims any further, and that Post Office Ltd would not "seek recovery" of "outstanding losses in the branch accounts or incurred through the robbery at the branch."

Ms van den Bogerd, questioned about this, said while the outstanding debt was "still live" on Mr Griffiths' account, it was her "intention never to recover any of that – and we didn't."

The advice added it was agreed "staged payments" would be made "as an incentive to Mrs Griffiths maintaining confidentiality".

Mr Beer said it was "a sword of Damocles hanging above [Mrs Griffiths]' head – you don't get any more money unless you keep quiet."

Inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams asked if, by that clause appearing in the final settlement agreement, Ms van den Bogerd had approved it. She replied: "Yes."

Mr Beer asked if Ms van den Bogerd found anything "unsavoury" in using money to ensure Mr Griffiths' case was "hushed up".

Ms van den Bogerd: "It didn't even enter my had that we would be going down that road...this was the first I'd heard of it from Rodric and the fact he said it was accepted meant I allowed it to continue...my concern at the time was facilitating that payment."

Ms van den Bogerd held various roles throughout her 35-year career at the Post Office, starting off as a network change operations manager, then on to head of network services, head of partnerships, director of support services and the director of people and change.

Errors in the Post Office’s Horizon IT system meant money appeared to be missing from many branch accounts when, in fact, it was not.

As a result, the government-owned organisation prosecuted more than 700 subpostmasters who were handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015.

The scandal represents one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in UK legal history. Since then, the Court of Appeal has quashed the convictions of more than 100 subpostmasters.

Hundreds of subpostmasters are still awaiting compensation despite the Government announcing that those whose convictions have been quashed are eligible for £600k payouts.

The inquiry continues.

• Anyone with mental health issues can contact MIND's infoline on 0300 123 3393, email info@mind.org.uk or text 86463 anytime between 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Alternatively, contact Samaritans at any time. You can call 116 123 (free from any phone) or email jo@samaritans.org.