Post Office paid widow in instalments for silence, inquiry hears

The widow of a sub-postmaster who took his own life had to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the Post Office in exchange for staggered compensation payments, an inquiry has heard.

The family of sub-postmaster Martin Griffiths also had to agree not to pursue legal action to try to clear his name.

The details emerged as part of a long-running inquiry into the prosecution of hundreds of sub-postmasters by the Post Office.

During a second day of questioning, former Post Office executive Angela van den Bogerd was shown emails where she and her colleagues discussed hiring a media lawyer after learning that Mr Griffiths was seriously ill in hospital.

It also emerged that the then chief executive, Paula Vennells, questioned whether Mr Griffiths had “previous mental health issues and potential family issues” to feed back to the board.

Between 1999 and 2015 the Post Office prosecuted hundreds of sub-postmasters for offences such as theft and false accounting on the strength of faulty Horizon accounting software.

Mr Griffiths had been pursued for a supposed shortfall amounting to £100,000 at his post office in Cheshire.

He had written to the Post Office that July about a £39,000 shortfall at his branch between February 2012 and May 2013.

He was also being held culpable for losses from an armed robbery at his branch in May of that year.

An email from campaigner Alan Bates to Post Office executives quoted Mr Griffiths’ mother saying that “the Post Office had driven him to suicide”.

The email was eventually forwarded to Ms van den Bogerd with a suggestion from the communications head Mark Davies to hire a specialist media lawyer.

Counsel for the inquiry Jason Beer KC asked Ms van den Bogerd: “The immediate reaction was not ‘what can we, the Post Office, do to help this man’s family’, was it?”

She replied: “Not at this point.”

Mr Beer asked if that was what it was like working in the Post Office at this time. “That the first thought was, we need a media lawyer?”

She replied: “In all my time with Post Office from very, very early on, I was very conscious that PR was very important.”