A former postal worker fought back tears as he recounted how he faced financial ruin and battled suicidal thoughts as a result of errors in the Post Office’s IT system, which showed that money was going missing from one of the branches he ran. Baljit Sethi was overcome by emotion on several occasions as he gave evidence to an independent inquiry looking into how hundreds of Post Office workers were wrongfully accused of theft, fraud and false accounting as a result of computer errors. The 69-year-old and his wife, Anjana, who have three children, successfully ran a Post Office branch near Romford in Essex for several decades, and took on another branch near Brentwood in 2001. A year later, the Horizon computer system showed a £17,000 hole in the Brentwood branch’s account, which the Sethis were asked to cover out of their own pocket. “I was so down and out, at one stage I was thinking of contemplating suicide. But then I thought no, this is the easy way out. What about my family, my children?” Sethi’s contract with the Post Office was terminated. He said he informed the company there was a problem. “I knew there was something wrong with the system, but no one wanted to know.” Sethi was the first witness to give evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry on the human impact of the failings of the company’s software. The inquiry is part of an investigation into one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history. Between 2000 and 2014, more than 700 post office operators were prosecuted based on information from the Horizon IT system, which was installed and maintained by Fujitsu. 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. Dozens of former Post Office workers have since had their convictions for theft, fraud and false accounting quashed by the court of appeal. Some of the convicted workers were sent to prison, others lost their livelihoods and their homes. Many went bankrupt, and some died before their names were cleared. Jason Beer QC, counsel to the inquiry, said “Lives were ruined. Families were torn apart. Families were made homeless and destitute. Reputations were destroyed.” The inquiry, which is being chaired by the retired high court judge Sir Wyn Williams, is expected to hear evidence from about 60 former Post Office workers over the coming weeks. Josephine Hamilton, known as Jo, who ran a post office in South Warnborough in Hampshire, had her conviction for false accounting quashed in 2021. She told the inquiry she had been falsely told she was the only person experiencing problems with the Horizon IT system, which showed a deficit in her accounts. “I borrowed money, I remortgaged and I put more money in to try and level it up. And in the end, I just ran out of money,” she said. Hamilton, who is 64, outlined the ongoing impact on her health, her family life and her finances. “I’ve almost become obsessed by fighting for justice. And I can’t sleep nights,” she said. “Literally it goes round and around in my head. I’m so frustrated.” It was revealed last month that less than a third of Post Office workers who applied for compensation under a government scheme in the wake of the Horizon scandal had received a payout offer. In addition, the Post Office said in January that it could not afford to foot the huge bill for the scandal, and the government – the service’s only shareholder – confirmed the taxpayer would step in. While some former Post Office workers continue to fight for compensation, others such as Sethi are also waiting for an apology. Sethi said the company had never apologised to him and his wife for the “20 years of hell” they had gone through. He called for the company’s former management to be investigated. “The people who did this, they should be investigated. Not a single person has been brought to charge. They have gone scot-free,” Sethi said.