Betty Brown, the 92-year-old oldest surviving victim of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to justice after campaigning against wrongful prosecutions. Brown and her late husband Oswall ran the Annfield Plain Post Office in County Durham from 1985 until 2003, when they were forced out after spending more than £50,000 of their savings to cover non-existent shortfalls generated by the faulty Horizon IT system. She recently received her long-awaited settlement from one of the government's compensation schemes.
Brown told BBC Breakfast that she accepted the recognition in the New Year Honours list on behalf of all the victims of the scandal. "Every one of them should have an OBE," she said. "Every one of them for what they've Post Office put us through and what we have stood solid and faithful for. I did it for justice."
The Horizon IT system, implemented by Fujitsu, was responsible for more than 900 sub-postmasters being wrongfully prosecuted due to it providing incorrect information. Thousands more faced financial ruin and reputational damage. The scandal, which began in the late 1990s, saw sub-postmasters accused of theft, fraud, and false accounting based on data from the Horizon system. Many were wrongly convicted, imprisoned, and financially devastated.
The Post Office has faced widespread criticism for its handling of the scandal, including its aggressive pursuit of prosecutions and its failure to adequately investigate the Horizon system's flaws. Public inquiries and legal challenges have since revealed the extent of the IT system's errors and the Post Office's misconduct.
The government has established several compensation schemes to provide redress to the victims. The ongoing inquiry into the scandal continues to examine the roles of the Post Office, Fujitsu, and government departments. The awarding of the OBE to Brown highlights the ongoing efforts to acknowledge the suffering of the victims and to ensure accountability for the injustices they faced.
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