A SUB-POSTMISTRESS who was wrongly accused of stealing £36,000 by the Post Office has said she wants “some people to face the consequences for what they’ve done”.

Between 2000 and 2014, more than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses (SPMs) were prosecuted based on information from the Horizon system, installed and maintained by Fujitsu.

However, in December 2019 a High Court judge ruled that Horizon’s system contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and there was a “material risk” that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.

Now an inquiry has begun in London to look into whether the Post Office knew about faults in the IT system and will also ask how staff were made to take the blame.

Today the inquiry heard from Josephine Hamilton, who was given a one-year supervision order in 2008 after being wrongly convicted of false accounting.

Ms Hamilton, a former sub-postmistress from South Warnborough, was accused of stealing £36,000 from her branch.

The inquiry heard that she was forced to remortgage her house and borrow money from friends, and that people in her village donated money to help.

She told reporters she wants “some people to face the consequences for what they’ve done”.

Ms Hamilton, 64, told the inquiry: “I’m so angry. I’m so angry about the group that they’re (Post Office) refusing to compensate.”

Jason Beer QC, counsel to the inquiry, said the ordeal of those affected could be concluded as “the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history”.

He went on to say: “Lives were ruined, families were torn apart, families were made homeless and destitute.

“Reputations were destroyed, not least because the crimes of which the men and women were convicted all involved acting dishonestly.

“People who were important, respected and integral part of the local communities that they served were in some cases shunned.

“A number of men and women sadly died before the state publicly recognised that they were wrongly convicted.”

Inquiry chairman Sir Wyn Williams, opening the hearing, said: “I cannot emphasise too strongly what is, of course, obvious, namely that these hearings would not be taking place at all were it not for the witnesses who have agreed to give up their valuable time and publicly relive what must be very distressing memories and events.”