British-Indian woman fought graft taint, now fights to get back postmaster’s job

An Indian-origin postmaster from Birmingham, who was wrongly accused of theft and fraud in the Post Office Horizon scandal, has vowed to reclaim her former role. Rooprit Gill, who managed the Wattville Road Post Office in Handsworth, was one of hundreds of sub-postmasters prosecuted due to faults in the Horizon computer system.

Gill was a sub-postmistress at the Wattville Road Post Office in Handsworth, Birmingham, and was convicted in 2011 for assisting her husband in covering up the theft of more than £38,000, according to BusinessLiveUK.

Now, she has been cleared of all allegations.

Gill told the BBC that she wanted to take charge of the business and become a postmaster once again.

“My dad’s wish before he passed away was wanting it to be ours again – that’s all he kept saying – because he knew I hadn’t taken the money,” she told the BBC.

Gill said she was adamant and won’t give up.

Gill endured immense personal tragedy, including the loss of her husband and a suicide attempt during the ordeal. Despite these challenges, she remains determined to restore her reputation.

“I want to stand behind there with my head held high and say I didn’t do it,” she told the BBC.

Gill took over the branch from her father, who was among the first Asian postmasters outside London.

She was dismissed after discrepancies were found in her bookkeeping but continued working in her family’s shop, which housed the branch, according to BBC.

“I lost my reputation,” she recounted. “I had to face these customers that saw everything that happened in the newspapers. I sort of kept away—I didn’t want to see anybody.”

OTHER BRITISH-INDIANS FOUGHT FOR JUSTICE

In April 2021, Seema Biswas, 47, and Vijay Parekh, two British-Indian sub-postmasters, were among 39 people who had their convictions overturned in a landmark Court of Appeal case.

Seema Misra, who ran a post office in Surrey from 2005, was pregnant when she was wrongly convicted of stealing £75,000 and sentenced to 15 months in prison over 12 years ago.

“If I hadn’t been pregnant, I would have definitely taken my own life,” Misra told Reuters.

Now a mother of two, Misra described the Court of Appeal’s decision to clear her name as a “huge moment.”

UK POST OFFICE CONTROVERSY

The UK Post Office Horizon scandal involved serious errors in the Horizon computer system, which was used by the Post Office to manage in-branch transactions and accounting.

The system, introduced in 1999, was plagued with bugs and defects that led to significant financial discrepancies in branch accounts. This malfunction caused many postmasters to be wrongly accused of theft, fraud, and false accounting, with some even jailed.

Between 1999 and 2015, the Horizon system wrongly implicated numerous postmasters, including several British Indians, of stealing money. These false accusations resulted in legal cases and wrongful convictions.

Paula Vennells, the Post Office’s CEO at the time, was responsible for overseeing the operations during this period.

The scandal gained renewed attention following the airing of a TV show, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which highlighted the controversy and led to increased public scrutiny. The program also prompted the Metropolitan Police to investigate the Post Office for potential fraud.