Pride and pain for Horizon postmistress one year on from return to work

A woman falsely accused of theft in the Post Office Horizon scandal says working at the branch where she was accused brings memories of both pride and pain, one year on from her return.

Rooprit Gill is back behind the counter at the Birmingham business her father opened 50 years ago, but until she was exonerated, her life was in chaos as rogue accusations took a huge toll.

Like hundreds of other sub-postmasters and mistresses, she was wrongly said to have stolen money after a faulty Post Office computer system - Horizon - indicated crimes where there were none.

"It was daunting returning at first, having that threatening thought in the back of the mind constantly that something might go wrong," she said.

The reality, though, is different.

"Everybody is so happy to see us back," she said. "They're just excited and they're happy that we're back there.

"We're busier than before... our footfall has doubled."

Gill is thought to be the first and only sub-postmistress to return to her branch.

Her alleged wrongdoing meant the Post Office dismissed her from the Wattville Road operation in Handsworth, based within a shop also run by the family.

While banished, and with the branch taken over by a third party, she was able to continue working at the shop, which meant she still saw her old Post Office customers as the cloud of accusation hung over her.

Her father died before her exoneration and did not learn of the scale of the scandal behind her ordeal, which he had supported her through.

She got back the keys to the branch last August and runs it.

But it comes after she lost her home and car - on top of her reputation - as she missed card and mortgage payments amid the stress of trying to stay out of prison and trying to keep what was left of the business going.

"I had jewellery and different things that I had to sell and get cash to put back in," she said.

"Dad managed to keep us afloat, and then after that, we built it back up and thought 'why not take [the Post Office component] back over'?" she explained.

The branch still operates on the Horizon system.

For Gill, that means working with something that remains daunting, even though she says she has not experienced technical problems of the kind that upended her life.

"The issues that I had then, I'm not seeing now," she said. "So I'm hoping they've rectified them... I'm just very cautious every time I'm balancing."

And there is one important difference, she says - the support available to her is better.

Gill says a current helpline for those in her role has been helpful and, crucially, provides recorded email evidence when she makes contact.

"Back in the day, it was 'you deal with it yourself, it's your problem, you sort it'. Whereas now they are very good, and and everything gets recorded."

Although she has been exonerated, the struggle, she says, is far from over.

She is still waiting for the financial losses she suffered to be fully calculated - and compensated.

"They're still looking into it, still trying to work out what they think I should be given, and still having to prove what actually happened at the time.

"So I'm still having to find receipts and still having to cross Ts and dot Is."

But every day she closes the Post Office after work, she is doing something that was once unthinkable.

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