Gillian Blakey, a core participant in the long-running inquiry into the Horizon scandal, ran the Riby Square branch in Grimsby, Lincolnshire for eight years from 1996, until the faulty IT system showed £65,000 shortfalls.
Her engineer husband, David, who handled balancing the account, was accused of stealing the money, with Post Office investigators suggesting he had spent the money on a gambling addiction or a mistress.
He denied stealing any money but was charged with theft and false accounting and Mrs Blakey was sacked from her role as sub-postmistress.
The theft charge was later dropped, but Mr Blakey was convicted of false accounting and handed a nine-month suspended prison sentence in 2005. His conviction was overturned in 2021.
After his conviction, Mr Blakey lost his full-time job, struggled to regain employment and was disowned by a close relative.
The couple lost their Post Office business, their home and their car and were forced to move into rented accommodation.
David and Gillian Blakey seen above celebrating the Court of Appeal ruling which overturned David’s previous conviction in 2021
Gillian Blakey wrote down her stresses to cope with the trauma of losing her job as postmistress 17 years ago
Mrs Blakey said in her 2022 witness statement to the inquiry: ‘The post office robbed us of our business, our livelihood and our home.
‘It robbed us of the chance of a peaceful, happy and prosperous retirement and the chance of selling a thriving business.’
Mrs Blakey – who was part of the Group Litigation Order (GLO) brought by Sir Alan Bates in 2019 – added that most of their share of the compensation they received was ‘taken up by legal costs, which left us very little’.
Inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams told the inquiry yesterday (WED): ‘My understanding is that Mrs Blakey had not received the additional compensation to which she was entitled under the GLO.
‘That must be a matter of great regret for all concerned.
‘On behalf of all the members of the inquiry team and on my own behalf I extend my greatest sympathies to all of Mrs Blakey’s family and friends.’
Mr Blakey told yesterday how his wife was still ‘overwhelmed with anger’ at the behaviour by most witnesses at the inquiry and said she would have wanted an end to the delays in paying compensation to victims.
In a statement released by his legal representative, Hudgell Solicitors: ‘Gill followed every day of the Inquiry and her only real regret was that she couldn’t live until the end and to see real justice done.
Mr Blakey added: ‘I don’t think she was disappointed but was overwhelmed with anger at the total incompetence and disregard shown by most of the witnesses.
‘I settled my case because of my bad heart and I felt that by doing so, we would at least have some money in the bank to enjoy. How life changes.
‘I know Gill would urge the Post Office to get rid of all these schemes and put an end to all this delay over compensating people properly.
‘She would urge them to do the right thing before more people pass.’
It came as the embattled Post Office chief executive Nick Read told the inquiry he was told not to ‘dig into the details of the past’ by its leading lawyer when he took on the role in 2019, following the controversial tenure of former boss Paula Vennells.
Mr Read, who will leave the business next March, admitted he was not made aware of the ‘scale and enormity’ of the scandal – which saw more than 900 sub-postmasters and others prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 because flaws in the Horizon IT system made it appear as if money was missing from branch accounts.
When he took the top job in 2019, the GLO group of 555 sub-postmasters and the Post Office was just coming to a head, in which the company agreed to pay £58 million in compensation.
In his witness statement to the inquiry, Mr Read said: ‘Private prosecutions were presented to me as a historic issue that had ceased before 2015 and that I did not need to dig into the details of what had happened at Post Office in the past as this conduct had ended.’
