Post Office Scandal: Read the sixth article in our special series with Noel Thomas - a Welsh sub-postmaster who was wrongly imprisoned after allegedly stealing money.

Here he recalls how campaigners set about taking on the Post Office and showing its Horizon computer system was faulty.

Previous installments are available here:

The battle for justice was just beginning for Noel Thomas and hundreds of other former postmasters who regularly met across the United Kingdom to discuss a way forward.  

Now free from his difficult time in prison, Mr Thomas was part of two groups of 555 former postmasters led by the former postmaster Alan Bates of Craig y Don Post Office near Llandudno. 

Mr Thomas attended meetings across the UK and a company called Freeths solicitors took over the case on a no win no fee basis with the first hearing being held in 2018. 

Mr Thomas said: “It was to do with the contracts and the way the Post Office treated you and what you signed. We beat that. Then it came to Horizon and the big guns came in to try and kill it (the case). The Post Office was throwing everything they had into the hearing.” 

In 2019, two weeks into the second hearing, the Post Office managed to slow the process down considerably. Mr Thomas says that the action added to the group's costs and to the cost of the taxpayer as the financial burden of the Post Office scandal is borne by the Westminster government. 

Mr Thomas said: “Then some Lord came to court and gave Mr Fraser, the judge, a writ saying he was biased and they wanted to sack him. The court was delayed for around two months if not three, which again added to the costs. The Court of Appeal turned the idea down and the Post had to carry on.” 

Mr Thomas says that the cost of that alone was near to £500,000. 

"That's what they paid the Lord to try to prevent the court or change the judge. It's the country’s money (this was) and it always has been all along! It’s the country’s money that’s paying for this inquiry now by Sir Wyn, (the public inquiry chaired by Sir Wyn Williams) and I have said in my statement to him that I am not happy about that. They're dragging this on again because it's going to take until 2024 now until they are done." 

North Wales Chronicle: Noel is angered that an inquiry into the scandal is still dragging on.Noel is angered that an inquiry into the scandal is still dragging on.

This October/November, Horizon and the Post Office will have the opportunity to give evidence to Sir Wyn Williams. 

Mr Thomas added: “That is going to continue until next year. Then by the time Sir Wyn has made his report and all the other stuff, when will it be ready and will it be shown? This is an endless story.” 

The Post Office and Freeths' lawyers reached an agreement on compensation for the group of over 500 sub-postmasters, according to Mr Thomas.  

"Out of what they called compensation of over £57 million, £49 million was going to pay the solicitors. There was between £10 million and £11 million left to be shared between over 500 of us. I received £11,000 and £3,000 a week thereafter for the inconvenience of going to jail.” 

Mr Thomas says that this payment "ruined the group in a way with some only receiving around £2,500. What they didn't understand was that they signed a no win no fee ontract, and as the solicitors say: 'You must read the small print'.” 

Mr Thomas is now represented by a firm called Hudgell Solicitors. 

"Neil Hudgell has been here - a very nice guy, an ordinary guy who was brought up in a council house in Hull with his grandparents and worked himself up." 

The lawyer has been successful in getting £100,000 of temporary payment to Noel and a number of other victims. 

"But of course half of that has gone into paying off debt and a family that has helped - but it helps." 

One of those "debts" was £9,000 to the Post Office even though Noel had never stolen from the public company. And again in 2007 he had to appear at Mold Crown Court. 

"They call it Proceeds of Crime. The Post Office turns up, about half a dozen of them like in their Savile Row suits and the girls in high heels and computers. They were on one side of the table and I was on the other with the judge Nic Parry at the head of the table. Then the Post guy stands up saying he wants this money 'and if Mr Thomas doesn’t pay' he says, 'we’ll stop his pension.' 

And even though Mr Thomas lost his private pension in court that day, he says he is very grateful to Mr Parry, the judge. 

"Nic Parry turns towards me and he tells me in Welsh: 'how long have you worked for these Noel?' '42 years Sir’ I said to him. 'He told me leave it to me and he wiped the floor with them: 'you can’t do that' he said.” 

This series first appeared on our sister site, Corgi Cymru