Innocent Post Office manager’s children told she was a ‘thief’, hears inquiry

theguardian.com:

A former Post Office branch manager’s young children were bullied and told their mum was a “liar” and a “thief” during the company’s IT system scandal, an inquiry has heard.

More than 700 post office operators were prosecuted between 2000 and 2014, based on information from the Horizon IT system, which was installed and maintained by Fujitsu.

Susan Hazzleton, 68, said her children, who were nine at the time, were taunted in the school playground when her Post Office branch in Chelmsford, Essex closed in 2001.

Her children were told that their mother was a “liar”, a “thief” and that she was “the reason the village doesn’t have a Post Office or shop any more”, Hazzleton said during the fourth day of evidence.

The former post office operator was accused of stealing £300 after auditors checked the accounts of the branch she had run since 1995. She was suspended, her shop closed and six weeks later she was arrested for theft.

“[The police] said I couldn’t go and pick the children up from school, they said they would collect them in the police car, take them to the station and they would have to stay there until they finished questioning me,” Hazzleton recalled.

“What mother wants that for her children?”

Thankfully, her children were able to stay with a family friend. The prosecution dropped the case 18 months later due to a lack of evidence.

Hazzleton said Post Office workers told her that no one else was having issues with the Horizon IT system like the ones that she told them she had been having.

She said that the shortfalls in her accounts began to “snowball” into the thousands in 2000 after she began using the Horizon system.

She said she called the Post Office helpline once a week but received no help. The call handler repeatedly