A subpostmaster from Brighouse is still fighting for compensation from The Post Office after he went bankrupt following the Horizon scandal.
In 1999, Stefan Fountain, now 66, was made redundant from his job at an engineering firm after the company was sold. As a result, he decided to buy a Post Office after taking out a bank loan and completing training in how to run the office.
One of his key jobs at the Post Office, was to to balance the office every Wednesday. This meant he would count everything in the Post Office, before filling in a form.
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If you are a tenner up, then that would be an extra tenner for the postmaster, if you are a tenner down, then you would put it in. For Stefan, everything was going fine, occasionally he would need to add some money in, but this was fairly normal for a Post Office.
Then, the Horizon system was brought in, and everything quickly began to go wrong. Stefan said: “All was going ok and then suddenly it was ‘what’s this? It’s a hundred quid down’. I thought ‘that’s a bit odd’ and you can generally find it, you do make mistakes, you’re bound to, and if you do you think ‘hang on, oh God I’ve counted that wrong’ and you can go back over it.
“But I couldn’t find it, and I was lying in bed until 11 o’clock at night thinking ‘where’s that gone?’ So I ended up putting £100 in to make it right and I rang the help centre, there was a help line with the Post Office, and I rang them and I said ‘look, I think there’s something wrong,’ because this started happening every week.
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“The balances aren’t right and I’m sure nobody’s stealing it, I’m not stealing it and the staff weren’t, I checked them out. I was told by them [the Post Office], that I was the only one that was having a problem in the whole Post Office group, which is 19,000 Post Offices.”
Eventually the problem just got worse and worse, and Stefan made the decision to sell the Post Office. He managed to sell it for half the price he bought it for but was left owing the bank around £60,000, and was unemployed.
As a result, Stefan was forced to declare bankruptcy. He had to remortgage his house, despite having almost paid it off and could only get a new mortgage which was interest only.
Stefan added: “For the next 20 I was paying a mortgage I should never have had. I had a lot of financial troubles because getting a job in those days was hard, I ended up knocking on doors in little sales jobs, but I finally got a good job and kept everything together.
“A couple of times I had to go to court to save my house, and then about five years ago, my wife died of cancer and to be quite honest, I partly blame the Post Office because it ruined our lives. It was something that was over us all the time, the financial problems, and some of the last words she said to me before she died were: ‘that bloody Post Office’.”
Around four years ago, Stefan was watching TV and saw on the news a number of subpostmasters being released from prison, which he said was a “big shock”. He rang the Post Office and was told he had a good case and he was told they owed him money.
Two years ago, Stefan’s mortgage was coming to an end, and he had to pay £168,000 or he would have to sell his house. At the time, he was in constant contact with the Post Office and he told them he was going to lose his house.
The Post Office responded by saying they would try to pay the mortgage for him, saying he would be receiving more than £168,000. In the end, Stefan never received the money and had to sell his house.
Eventually, Stefan was contacted by Hudgell Solicitors who offered him some help, which was being paid for by the inquiry into the scandal. Stefan at first thought the Post Office was finally going to compensate him with £24,000, but he kept their number as they said he was likely to need their help in future.
Stefan says they were “dead right”. According to Stefan, due to his bankruptcy, he was still liable for everything before then and the insolvency services would take £20,000 of the payment. Stefan also said the Post Office is now saying they are not the reason he went bankrupt and he is still fighting for justice.
Stefan currently works part time, but will soon lose his job as his contract is ending and he needs to find a new job as he rents his house and can’t afford to retire. He said: “What I’m wanting is this compensation so I can buy myself a little house and, call it a draw.”
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