It took a TV show to bring justice in U.K.’s Post Office scandal

Seema Misra was pregnant when she was wrongfully found guilty of stealing from the Post Office she ran in a small town southwest 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.

After a two-decade struggle for national attention, it was a TV drama watched by 9 million people that finally prompted the government to promise a swift end to the saga in favor of the victims. Until this week, hundreds of sub-postmasters had been left in limbo even after a court ruling in 2019 blew open the scandal and ordered the Post Office to pay compensation.