Former sub-postmistress SEEMA MISRA: Princess Anne gave me an OBE, but if people don't go behind bars for what they've done, we'll give it back...
When Seema Misra was told that the King wanted to award her an OBE for 'services to justice', she was unsure whether to accept it. 'I was shocked,' she says. 'It's a good thing, it's a title I respect, it's the Royal family.' But for Seema, 50, there were strong reasons to turn it down, as justice – in her case and in that of so many others – has still not been served.
Almost 15 years since the former sub-postmistress was jailed for 'stealing' £74,000 from the Post Office, and four years since her conviction was overturned, she has yet to receive full damages – or see consequences for the people who ruined her life.
YOU covered the sub-postmasters' case in 2022, and ITV 's 2024 drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office re-ignited the public's interest. 'Now people tap my shoulder in the supermarket and say, 'The whole country is behind you', which is powerful to hear, but we're still living with this injustice, day in, day out.'
Seema accepted her OBE, attending the ceremony at Windsor Castle in April with her husband Davinder, 54, sons Aditya and Jairaj, 24 and 13, and her elderly mother-in-law. HRH The Princess Royal presented the award. 'She was really good,' says Seema. 'I started explaining that we still wanted accountability, but she knew everything already. She congratulated me for not giving up. It was a good day.' And yet Seema is adamant, 'If people don't go behind bars for what they did, we will be giving the OBE back.'
She has every reason to be angry. We meet in the Surrey home she shares with her husband, his mother and their sons. It has five bedrooms and a yard for their two dogs. They have been here a year, a move made possible by two interim compensation payments. Before this, the family shared a one-bedroom flat: the Post Office had taken their business, capital, property and good name. It's hard to convey how much they lost.
'Seema and I came to the UK with zero pence and big goals,' says Davinder. Arriving from New Delhi in 1999, the newly married couple worked hard – in restaurants, at Tesco and at an estate agent. In less than two years, they bought their first buy-to-rent property at auction. They soon built a thriving property business, and in 2005 sold most of it to buy the West Byfleet Post Office and shop.
But there were problems with Fujitsu's Horizon IT system from the start. 'At the end of the first day, the system recorded a shortfall of £100,' Seema recalls. A trainer who was teaching her the system instructed her to take £100 from the till in the shop – the couple's own separate business – and put it into the Post Office to balance the books; otherwise, they couldn't open the next day. This pattern continued, with Seema increasingly alarmed. The next week there was a different trainer, who noted the constant shortfall and called the Horizon helpline. The advisor talked the trainer through an IT procedure – at the end of which the shortfall doubled before their eyes. Still, at the end of that week, the trainer just left Seema to it. Years later, when lawyers tried to call these trainers as witnesses in her trial, the Post Office claimed they didn't exist.
The shortfalls mounted, in 2008 Seema was suspended and in 2010 she stood trial for theft and false accounting. A warm person who laughs easily, she somehow remained strong and optimistic throughout the legal proceedings. 'I'm good, honest, god-fearing and I'd done nothing wrong, so I really believed it would be OK,' she says. Mid-trial, she found out she was pregnant – the couple had been trying for a second child for eight years and Seema had been treated for polycystic ovary syndrome. 'I was happy, but when I told Davinder he just said, 'OK.' He had no expression at all.'
Davinder remembers it. 'Normally, I'd have been jumping up and down, but I could see the way this was going. I knew they were going to take Seema away from me.' The guilty verdict confirmed his worst fears.
Seema was sentenced to 15 months in prison on 11 November 2010, Aditya's tenth birthday. This is the point where her voice breaks and her eyes fill with tears. 'I can't come to terms with going to prison,' she says. 'It's the shame. The stigma. We believed that only bad people go to prison.' She and Davinder kept her conviction secret from her parents in India and from Aditya, who was told his mum was in a special hospital because of her pregnancy. 'If I hadn't been pregnant, I'd have killed myself,' she says. 'The cells were filthy, the meat was halal, which I couldn't eat. There was a lot of self-harming, so when you used the phone there'd be blood on it.'
When Seema was released after four months for good behaviour, she barely left home. She gave birth to their second son, Jairaj, wearing her electronic monitoring tag. 'All I could think was, 'What must the midwife think? What kind of mother did she think I'd be?''
For years, even while Seema joined other Post Office victims to clear their names, the shame continued. 'I'm proud of my family but I didn't want the world to know my sons were related to me,' she says. 'I never took them to school or picked them up. At my son's cricket matches, I wouldn't go on to the field. I'd park where I could see him without others seeing me.'
A group action of 555 sub-postmasters, including Seema, led to the 2019 High Court ruling that the Horizon IT system was 'not remotely robust'. The case was settled for £58 million, leaving claimants with £12 million after legal costs. And in April 2021, Seema's own conviction was officially overturned. A public inquiry established that bugs in the Horizon system had been detected as far back as 1999, but that the Post Office had withheld evidence and edited witness statements to support their prosecutions. The Metropolitan Police has opened a criminal investigation into personnel from the Post Office and Fujitsu.
'I want every single person named in the inquiry, from the government, the Post Office and Fujitsu, to be held accountable,' says Seema. Paula Vennells, the former Post Office CEO, has had her CBE revoked, but for Seema it is not enough. 'This isn't just about people 'making a mistake',' she says. 'How could I be sent to prison, with no evidence, for a crime I didn't commit, when so many people who lied and withheld evidence are still walking around with no criminal consequences? Paula Vennells is just one person. Alan Cook, a former Post Office managing director is another. Angela van den Bogerd, a Post Office executive, is another. There are so many.'
To date, £892 million has been paid to more than 6,000 claimants, with many receiving far less than they believe they're owed. Sir Alan Bates recently accused the government of running a 'quasi kangaroo court' payout system for victims, and revealed he has been offered less than half of his claim. 'They are dragging it out to wear us down,' says Seema. 'It's like torture. They hope we'll accept a lower figure because we want closure.' The Misra family is still waiting to see how much they will receive in total. Bates predicts it will be November 2027 before claims are settled at the current rate, and last month urged victims to take the government to court. Seema has her doubts. 'I've been through court and it's not easy. We'd be using public funds to fight the battle, and the Post Office would be using public funds to defend itself. I think it's a misuse of everyone's money.'
Still, she understands why victims would take this route. 'I know the frustration and anger, as it is taking so long,' she says. 'It hurts to think of our business growth in our first five years compared to today,' adds Davinder.
The couple sold their Post Office shop in 2010 for less than half they had paid for it. They have since moved away from West Byfleet and started again: they began building another portfolio, acquiring a property using the interim payment and helped by Aditya, who graduated from Imperial College London and works at Deutsche Bank. 'Through all this, our sons have been our focus,' says Seema. 'For years, we might be at meetings, court hearings or doing interviews when they were at school, but when they came home we put on a happy face. They never missed their cricket, tuition, guitar lessons… If they'd known what was happening, they'd be different people.'
It wasn't until 2019, after the High Court ruling, that the couple told them the truth. 'Aditya was 19 and he was so shocked,' says Seema. 'He never knew I'd been to prison or anything. He read up about it, watched interviews with me and was so proud. And we're so proud of him. He has done so well. We have come through together.'
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