Former sub-postmistress Seema Misra was among campaigners recognised at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on Wednesday and was presented with a gong by Princess Anne
She once suffered the indignity of giving birth wearing an electronic tag after being wrongly convicted of theft.
But, today, Post Office scandal victim Seema Misra was honoured with an OBE. The campaigner was presented with the gong by Princess Anne at Windsor Castle. Ex-sub-postmasters Lee Castleton and Christopher Head were also recognised at the investiture ceremony for their efforts fighting the Horizon IT scandal. The campaigners’ OBEs were revealed in the King’s New Year ’s Honours list. The plight of sub-postmasters was thrust into the spotlight after ITV ’s drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, aired in January last year.
Over 900 subpostmasters prosecuted between 1999 and 2015, with faulty IT software making it look as though money was missing. Mrs Misra was accused of stealing almost £75,000 from the West Byfleet Post Office she ran in Surrey and ended up being convicted in October 2010. The following month, she was sentenced to 15 months for theft while eight weeks pregnant with her second child. She got concurrent six-month terms for false accounting.
Reflecting on her journey at the ceremony on Wednesday, Mrs Misra said: “Going to prison, that’s like a shameful thing. I’m OK to fight the Post Office day in, day out but it’s just prison I was still coming to terms with.” She said she would continue to fight to see “real culprits go behind bars” for the scandal.
In a statement to the Post Office inquiry in 2022, Mrs Misra said: “Had I not been pregnant, I would have considered taking my own life.” She added, “my life and that of my family was ruined by my wrongful prosecution and my wrongful conviction for theft, my experience of prison – which unsurprisingly has never left me – and the catastrophic personal and financial consequences that followed”. The former sub-postmistress served about four months behind bars and her conviction was later overturned in April 2021.
Mr Castleton, from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, went bankrupt in 2004 after being sued by the Post Office over claims there was a £25,000 shortfall at his branch he could not account for. Aged just 18, Mr Head was the youngest subpostmaster in the UK when the Post Office pursued him through the courts for shortfalls of £80,000. He has since set up petitions calling for compensation, garnering over 550,000 signatures.
It comes as Sir Alan Bates urged victims of the Post Office scandal to take the government to court over financial redress delays. In an email sent to the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance group, the leading campaigner said a judicial review would “probably be the quickest way to ensure fairness for all”.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he was “delighted” to see a group of sub-postmasters receive OBEs, adding: “They deserve this special recognition for their tireless campaign for postmasters who have waited far too long to get justice – and we remain committed to seeing justice done”.
Among those also honoured today was actor Eddie Marsan. Marsan, the son of a lorry driver and school dinner lady, was given an OBE for services to drama. The 56-year-old, raised on a council estate in Bethnal Green in London, has starred in a host of productions, including playing Amy Winehouse’s dad Reggie in last year’s biopic Back To Black.