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It Took a TV Show to Bring Justice in UK Post Office Scandal
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- Government moves to exonerate sub-postmasters amid outrage
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Seema Misra was pregnant when she was wrongfully found guilty of stealing from the Post Office she ran in a small town south-west of London. Seven months later, including four spent in jail, she gave birth in the hospital wearing an ankle tag used to monitor released criminals.
Misra is among the victims of arguably the biggest scandal in British legal history. Between 2000 and 2014 the Post Office, the taxpayer-owned provider of unfashionable services that still make an economy tick — think postage stamps and pension payments — accused thousands of its storekeepers of stealing. It secured more than 900 convictions of sub-postmasters, as they are known. Most lost their businesses, many were bankrupted. At least four died by suicide.