Deputy postmaster who was fired and bankrupt after her husband was wrongly accused of stealing from the post office dies without receiving full payment

A FORMER deputy postmaster who was sacked and bankrupt after her husband was wrongly accused of robbing her post office has died without receiving full compensation.

Gillian Blakey, a key participant in the long-running investigation into the Horizon scandal, ran the Riby Square branch in Grimsby, Lincolnshire for eight years from 1996 until the faulty IT system showed a £65,000 shortfall .

Her engineer husband David, who was in charge of balancing the account, was accused of stealing the money, and Post Office investigators suggested he had spent the money on a gambling addiction or a mistress.

He denied stealing any money but was charged with theft and false accounting and Ms Blakey was dismissed from her role as assistant postmaster.

The theft charge was later dropped, but Mr Blakey was convicted of accounting fraud and given a nine-month suspended prison sentence in 2005. His sentence was quashed in 2021.

After his conviction, Mr Blakey lost his full-time job, struggled to regain employment and was shunned by a close family member.

The couple lost their Post Office business, their house and their car and were forced to move into rented accommodation.

David and Gillian Blakey seen above celebrating the Court of Appeal ruling which overturned David’s previous conviction in 2021

Gillian Blakey wrote about her struggle to cope with the trauma of losing her job as a postmistress 17 years ago

Ms Blakey said in her 2022 witness statement to the inquest: “The Post Office stole our business, our livelihood and our home.

“It robbed us of the possibility of a peaceful, happy and prosperous retirement and the possibility of selling a thriving business.”

Ms Blakey, who was part of the Class Action Order (GLO) brought by Sir Alan Bates in 2019, added that most of their share of the compensation they received “has been taken up by legal costs , which left us very little.”

The chair of the inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams, told the inquiry yesterday (DIM): “It is my understanding that Ms Blakey had not received the additional compensation she was entitled to under the GLO.

“This must be a matter of great regret to all concerned.

“On behalf of all members of the investigation team and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to all of Ms Blakey’s family and friends.”

Mr Blakey said yesterday his wife was still “overwhelmed with anger” at the behavior of most of the inquest witnesses and said she would have wanted an end to delays in paying compensation to victims.

In a statement released by his legal representative, Hudgell Solicitors: “Gill followed every day of the inquest and his only real regret was that he could not live to see the end and see real justice done.

Mr Blakey added: “I don’t think she is disappointed but she was overwhelmed with anger at the utter incompetence and disregard shown by most of the witnesses.

“I settled my case out of my bad heart and felt that by doing so we would at least have some money in the bank to enjoy. What a life changer.

“I know Gill would urge the Post Office to get rid of all these schemes and put an end to all this delay in properly compensating people.

“She would urge them to do the right thing before more people happen.”

It came as Post Office chief executive Nick Read told the inquiry he was told by his senior lawyer not to “delves into the details of the past” when he took over in 2019, following the controversial tenure of former boss Paula Vennells. .

Read, who will leave the business next March, admitted he was unaware of the “scale and enormity” of the scandal, which saw more than 900 deputy postmasters and others prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 due to defects in the Horizon computer system. made it appear that money was missing from the branch accounts.

When he took up the top job in 2019, the GLO group of 555 deputy postmasters and the post office had just reached a peak, with the company agreeing to pay £58m in compensation.

In his witness statement to the inquiry, Mr Read said: “Private allegations were put to me as a matter of history which had ceased before 2015 and I did not need to go into the details of what had happened at the Post Office in the past, as this conduct had ended.