Veterans for Reform

POST OFFICE BANKRUPTED A MAN FOR ASKING FOR HELP 91 TIMES Lee Castleton spent 9 years in the RAF, then worked as a stockbroker in the City. In 2003 he and his wife decided they wanted a slower life for their two young kids. They sold their home and bought a small Post Office branch in Bridlington, on the seafront. Within a year the dream job turned into a nightmare. His accounts started showing losses that made no sense. So he did the responsible thing and called the Horizon helpline. Then he called it again. And again. 91 times in 12 weeks, begging someone to explain where the money was going. Nobody could tell him. The Post Office's answer to being told 91 times that their own system was broken was to audit him, suspend him, and demand he pay back 25,000 pounds he never touched. Castleton had no money left for a lawyer so he represented himself in the High Court, alone, against an organisation with a government sized legal budget. He lost. The Post Office then chased him for 321,000 pounds in legal costs and bankrupted him. That is the reward for reporting a fault 91 times. Bankruptcy. The fallout went well beyond the shop. His kids were bullied at school. His daughter was spat at because people in town assumed her dad was a thief. His wife's health suffered under the strain. All because a computer system got the maths wrong and nobody at the top wanted to admit it. In 2019 Castleton was one of over 550 former postmasters who won a group settlement of 58 million pounds. He personally received 20,000 pounds, a rounding error next to what the case cost him. He was even locked out of a mediation scheme the Post Office ran for people who believed they had been wrongly pursued. Years later former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells told the Horizon IT Inquiry under oath that Castleton's treatment was unforgivable. She also said she had likely signed off on the 300,000 pound bill that ruined him. Unforgivable is one word for it. There are others. Castleton is now suing the @PostOffice and @fujitsu_uk for up to 8 million pounds, arguing the original 2007 judgment against him was obtained by fraud. In May 2026 the Court of Appeal ruled his case should be heard as one trial instead of being split into pieces designed to bury it in cost and delay. A small win. Nearly two decades late. He wanted a quieter life running a post office by the sea. Instead he became one of the clearest examples of what happens when an institution would rather bankrupt an innocent man than admit its software was broken. Sources @BBCNews @lawsocgazette @ComputerWeekly and others