UK Post Office scandal led to 13 suspected suicides, says report
LONDON: Thirteen people may have taken their own lives and others were bankrupted or became seriously ill as a result of Britain's Post Office scandal, a public inquiry found on Tuesday, laying bare the toll of one of the country's worst miscarriages of justice. Inquiry chair Wyn Williams said on Tuesday he was satisfied that executives at the state-owned Post Office knew, or should have known, that its computer system was prone to errors, yet they publicly maintained the fiction it was accurate.
From 2000-2013, the Post Office pursued branch managers, known as subpostmasters, for losses that appeared in their accounts but were caused by flaws in an IT system supplied by Japanese company Fujitsu. About 1,000 people were convicted. Public outrage about the scandal mounted last year after a TV dramatization of the case, 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office', which led to legislation to exonerate those convicted. In the 162-page first volume of his report, Williams called for urgent action to ensure 'full and fair' compensation for victims. His recommendations included free legal advice and compensation for family members.
He said it was impossible to ascertain exactly how many people had been impacted, but said there were about 10,000 eligible claimants across four compensation schemes. 'Many thousands of people have suffered serious financial detriment,' he said in a speech after the publication. 'Many businesses and homes have been lost, bankruptcies have occurred, marriages and families have been wrecked.'
'Tragically, I heard too of people whom it is said that they were driven to take their own lives,' he added. Detailing 17 first-hand accounts, Williams said suffering ranged from those held liable for small amounts of money to those who were wrongly imprisoned, fell seriously ill or were driven to despair and suicide.
Postmaster Martin Griffiths was given notice of termination of his contract in 2013 after shortfalls in his accounts. He then deliberately walked in front of a bus, suffering multiple injuries which caused his death at the age of 59. Following a request from the inquiry, the Post Office identified six former postmasters whose families said they had taken their own lives. A further seven people who were not postmasters had also taken their own lives as a consequence of false shortfalls, according to their families, the report said.
Others suffered mental and physical health problems, bankruptcy and relationship breakdowns.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the publication of the report was an important milestone for subpostmasters and their families. 'I am committed to ensuring wronged subpostmasters are given full, fair, and prompt redress,' he said. The inquiry has held 226 days of hearings and has questioned 298 witnesses. The second volume of the final report, which will include the role of the Post Office, will be published in due course. – Reuters
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
a day ago
- Kuwait Times
Armed men kidnap, kill nine Pakistani bus passengers
QUETTA: Rescue personnel transfer the body of a bus passenger into an ambulance, a day after he was killed in a militant attack allegedly by the separatist group Balochistan Liberation Front (BLA), at the Zhob district in Balochistan province on July 11, 2025. -- AFP QUETTA, Pakistan: Pakistan's authorities retrieved the bullet-ridden bodies of nine bus passengers kidnapped by insurgents in a spate of attacks on buses in the mountainous southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said on Friday. The separatist Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) claimed the killings of the nine laborers, saying that they were involved in spying for Pakistani intelligence agencies. Baloch separatists, who have been demanding a greater share of resources, have played a role in similar past killings of those identified as hailing from the eastern province of Punjab. Government official Naveed Alam said the bodies with bullet wounds were found in the mountains overnight, while a provincial government spokesman, Shahid Rind, said the passengers were seized from two buses on Thursday evening. 'We are identifying the bodies and reaching out to their families,' he said, adding that the victims, working as laborers in the restive region, were returning home to Punjab. They include two brothers who were going to attend the funeral of their father, Alam said. Ethnic insurgents accuse Pakistan's government of stealing regional resources to fund expenditure elsewhere, mainly in the sprawling province of Punjab. Security forces foiled three insurgent attacks on Thursday before the kidnappings, Rind said, accusing India of backing the militants. The Indian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. New Delhi denies accusations by Islamabad that it is funding, training and backing the militants in a bid to stoke instability in the region, where Pakistan relies on China among international investors to develop mines and mineral processing. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the strongest among the insurgent groups long operating in the area bordering Afghanistan and Iran, a mineral-rich region. In recent months, separatists have stepped up their attacks, mostly targeting Pakistan's military, which has launched an intelligence-based offensive against them. Their other main targets have been Chinese nationals and interests, in particular the strategic port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, with the separatists accusing Beijing of helping Islamabad to exploit resources. The BLA blew up a railway track and took over 400 train passengers hostage in an attack in March that killed 31. – Reuters
Kuwait Times
a day ago
- Kuwait Times
Europe's illegal pesticide trade surges as farmers cut costs
Banned illegal pesticides pose risks to humans and the environment THESSALY, Greece: As the cost of spraying crops with pesticides becomes increasingly expensive, farmers in Greece's agricultural heartland have turned to a cheaper alternative: liquids in unlabeled plastic bottles smuggled over land and sea. The products are more effective, a dozen farmers across the Thessaly plain said. They are also potentially more harmful: laboratory tests shared with Reuters show the bottles contain pesticides banned in the European Union for several years because of suspected risks to humans or the environment. The situation in Greece, explained by farmers, elected officials, law enforcement officers and pesticide industry experts, is echoed across the EU, where authorities say the use of banned and counterfeit pesticides is higher than ever. This comes as the bloc is seeking to reduce even the use of permitted crop aids as part of its green transition. At least 14 percent of pesticides used on EU fields today are illegal, up from around 10 percent in 2015, EU data shows. In some areas of Greece, that number hits 25 percent, said Greece's Crop Protection Association ESYF, which represents pesticide companies in the country. A record 2,040 tons of illegal pesticides were seized by police in Europe in 2022, the latest available data by Europol from an EU-wide operation shows, four times higher than in 2019. The problem is likely even larger because so much smuggling goes undetected, said authorities in Greece and in several of Europe's main agricultural producers: France, Germany and Spain. 'This is a long-standing concern,' a European Commission spokesperson said in response to Reuters questions. It was up to member states to combat smuggling, but the Commission is working to speed up the approval of new substances to help farmers fight pests legally, the spokesperson said. Greece's agriculture Minister Kostas Tsiaras told Reuters that Greece was working to protect public health, support farmers, and promote safe, legal agricultural production. 'The fight against illegality is a priority for us,' he said. Greek farmers are vulnerable to the illegal pesticide trade because of the lingering impacts of the 2010-18 financial crisis and climate change, which has parched their land and brought pest outbreaks. Pesticides can amount to up to 50 percent of annual costs, some farmers said. A litre of a popular Greek insecticide costs up to 380 euros ($445). A counterfeit can be found on the black market for 200-230 euros, they added. The high prices threaten livelihoods in Thessaly, a key breadbasket in central Greece, which produces apples, almonds, grains and cotton. Orchards in the region have been abandoned as farmers seek work elsewhere. 'To survive, a farmer must become a criminal?' said Giorgos Zeikos, a fourth-generation apple farmer who heads a cooperative in the village of Agia. 'It's one thing to break the law to profit; it's another to do it just to survive.' Zeikos said he has refused offers to use illegal pesticides. But farmers in six villages across the hot valley said they, or their relatives or neighbors, had tried them. Another temptation is the perceived effectiveness of the illegal pesticides. On a break from the fields, farmers in the cotton-producing village of Metamorfosi recounted how older, now-banned pesticides were so potent that birds would not fly over their fields after they sprayed. Now, they said, they apply twice the recommended dose of the legal product. George Pontikas, president of ESYF, the crop protection association, dismissed farmers' claims that pesticides were expensive and inefficient. He said authorities were not doing enough to punish lawbreakers. 'Someone who poisons our food supply to make a profit should be treated as a felon,' said Pontikas, who is also chief executive of the Greek branch of Swiss agrochemicals giant Syngenta. The products are smuggled into Greece overland from Bulgaria in spare tires or ferried on rafts traffickers use to bring migrants into Europe from Turkey, farmers and officials said. In one village, an almond farmer said he once drove to Bulgaria and bought five boxes of counterfeit products for himself and his neighbors. In another, a farmer said locals act as intermediaries for a man known as 'the Bulgarian'. When he is expected, they take orders from others in the village. Farmers pay in cash, spray at night and burn the empty containers to erase all evidence, they said. 'If you want it, you'll find it,' said Thanasis Kostis, a farmer in Metamorfosi. Kostis said he has not used illegal products. Farmers who told Reuters they had used the illegal pesticides asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from authorities. Bulgaria's Food Safety Agency said it has stepped up inspections since October to combat the trade and use of unauthorized products. Turkey's Trade Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The trade is increasingly structured, resembling organized economic crime, a senior Greek police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Roles are divided into import, storage and distribution. Meanwhile, police act largely on tip-offs, three police and industry officials told Reuters. Dimitris Stavridis, head of Thessaly's General Directorate of Regional Agricultural Economy, acknowledged that more checks could be carried out in farmers' markets but said that some regions struggled with understaffing. Seized products go to the Benaki Phytopathological Institute in Athens for analysis. Many arrive with Bulgarian, Turkish, or handwritten labels. Some counterfeits look like EU-approved products but may contain harmful substitutes, including unknown solvents. Under Greek law, only pesticides with Greek labels are legal. Greek police and Europol say many of these substances originate in China. China's Foreign Ministry said in an e-mail that it has always asked companies to abide by the laws in the countries in which they operate and that Beijing is willing to strengthen cooperation with the EU on customs enforcement. The EU bans have been partly due to what regulators identified as health risks, including links to liver, kidney and lung damage, or as possible carcinogens. However, some of these chemicals are used legally in other countries, including the United States. Over a dozen banned pesticides - some since 2009 - were detected in Greece alone in 2024, tests seen by Reuters show. 'This is serious,' said Thessaly Governor Dimitris Kourtas, a toxicology professor, referring to research on the possible health impact. In the past year, 10 banned pesticides were detected in Greek produce including olives, cherries, tomatoes, grapes and oranges, Agriculture Ministry data shows. While the World Health Organization says consumer risk from low pesticide levels is minimal, farmers using illegal chemicals may face greater danger. In the early 2000s, respiratory physicians at Larissa University Hospital in Thessaly observed that many patients who smoked and were exposed to pesticides were developing a rare form of lung scarring. In 2006, their published findings alongside similar research in France, helped to formally recognize a disease now known as Combined Pulmonary Fibrosis and Emphysema (CPFE). 'Nearly all such patients exposed to both smoking and pesticides developed this distinct entity,' said doctor Ilias Dimeas. Elsewhere in Greece's farming regions, doctors say they have seen a rise in respiratory diseases in recent years potentially linked to pesticide exposure and are beginning to take note of their patients' occupational history. Farmers greet the risks with a shrug. 'All pesticides have consequences,' said Kostis, the farmer in Metamorfosi. 'I had a mask, but this year I haven't worn it at all.' – Reuters
Kuwait Times
3 days ago
- Kuwait Times
Liverpool's Portuguese forward Diogo Jota dies in car crash in Spain, TVE reports
(FILES) Liverpool's Portuguese striker #20 Diogo Jota celebrates after scoring a goal during the English League Cup third round football match between Liverpool and West Ham United at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on September 25, 2024. Liverpool striker Diogo Jota died along with his brother early July 3, 2025 in a road accident in northwest Spain, the Spanish Civil Guard said. The accident occurred around 12:30 a.m. on a highway in the province of Zamora. The vehicle "left the road" before bursting into flames, the Civil Guard said, adding that the two passengers, Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Felipe, also a professional footballer, were deceased. —AFP MADRID: Liverpool's Portuguese forward Diogo Jota, 28, died in a fiery car crash near Zamora in northwestern Spain with his brother, Spanish state-owned TV station said on Thursday, citing local firefighters. Police told Reuters everything pointed to that information being correct, although they could not yet officially confirm the names. The regional fire department of Castille-Leon, where Zamora is located, said on its website a car crashed shortly after midnight on Thursday and burst into flames, with two men, aged 28 and 26, found dead. Jota, who got married on June 28, helped Liverpool win the Premier League last season and also won the FA Cup and League Cup with the Merseyside outfit. Jota arrived at Anfield from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020 and scored 65 goals in 182 appearances for the club in all competitions. He also made 49 appearances for Portugal, twice winning the UEFA Nations League. —Reuters
