Book review: Surviving the ordeal that was the Post Office Horizon scandal

Jo Hamilton — one of the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal — has written a personal account of the UK’s most widespread miscarriage of justice

Jo Hamilton’s story is one of overcoming challenges that life can conjure against you. File picture: Leon Neal/Getty

• Why Are You Here, Mrs Hamilton?
• Jo Hamilton 
• bl!nk, hb €23

As a treat, after years of penury, court hearings, and incalculable trauma, Jo Hamilton — one of the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal — bought herself a horse after being awarded compensation for her wrongful conviction.

Before the post office debacle, the author of this personal account of the UK’s most widespread miscarriage of justice, writes about the peace and tranquillity she experienced from the equine world.

In her teens, Hamilton’s mother bought her a pony on the understanding that she would work part time to keep Daisy-Mae in a shared field and feed her. 

Hamilton was never work-shy. She writes about her various jobs including running a pub with her husband David, a former army man, and lorry driving having got a HGV licence.

Life pre-post office was good. It was “blissfully simple and all about family”. 

The Hamiltons, who have two sons, experienced a change in their fortunes however, when the brewery they worked for wouldn’t give them a different pub, despite the couple being threatened by a man who was barred from their pub turning up one night wielding a knife.

Jobless, the family had to move in with Hamilton’s parents. They set up a transport business. But when a customer went into debt, the business came crashing down and the couple had debts of their own to pay off.

Hamilton ended up running a shop and post office in the village of South Warnborough in Hampshire in 2001. 

The shop was the epicentre of the village and included a small cafe. Everyone knew everybody else. 

For Hamilton, it was idyllic. She describes it as being like the TV drama, Last of the Summer Wine.

However, things turned sour when Hamilton was one of more than 900 sub-postmasters that were wrongfully prosecuted because of faulty software suggesting money was missing from their branch accounts. 

The scandal ruined lives. Some sub-postmasters, including Hamilton, used their own money to cover non-existent shortfalls as their contracts stated they were liable for unexplained losses. 

Marriages broke down and it is thought that more than 13 people may have taken their own lives as a result of the scandal.

Hamilton’s great regret is that her beloved parents, who supported her all the way, didn’t live to see their daughter’s name exonerated — her conviction for ‘false accounting’ quashed as well as her being awarded 80% of what she asked for.

Hamilton doesn’t state how much money she got but says she is financially secure. 

Despite having settled her case, Hamilton continues to fight for those who haven’t yet achieved a satisfactory outcome.

In 2019, the Post Office agreed to pay a group of 555 sub-postmasters £58m in compensation but much of the money went on legal fees. 

The group was led by Alan Bates — who was subsequently knighted for his services. 

The whole sorry episode came to wider public attention in 2024 when it was depicted in an ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office. 

What Hamilton says was particularly damaging was how she was led to believe she was the only one experiencing difficulties with the IT system. The others were told the same thing.

The title of the book comes from a judge’s question when he saw how many people had come to court to support Hamilton. She comes across as being full of integrity with a deep community spirit.

The book is interesting. Inevitably there is some obfuscating legal detail. 

But Hamilton, who cleaned houses when she was broke — having lost her job — wants her story to be one of hope. 

She states that she had right on her side and good people working together to fight a grave injustice.