2 2GN The Sunday Times February 13, 2022
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Gordon Martin was
made bankruptinquiry, will hear Martin’s
story and that of 38 others to
try to understand the scale of
the suffering endured by
victims of the scandal over
the past two decades.
As one of the 555 sub-
postmasters who exposed the
scandal in a group action in
the High Court, Martin isNEWS REVIEW
in British legal history. They
were wrongly accused of
stealing money from the Post
Office, when the errors were
the fault of a new computer
system called Horizon.
Between 2000 and 2014,
more than 700 sub-
postmasters were prosecuted
by the Post Office, which is
owned by the government
and separated from Royal
Mail in 2013. Innocent people
were jailed; marriages were
destroyed. Four reportedly
died from suicide.
Martin’s problems began in
April 2006, a few weeks after
the couple sold their house to
raise money to buy the local
post office, next door to the
discount shop he ran. When
he cashed up the till for the
first time, after two weeks’
trading, he was shocked to
discover a shortfall of £2,000.
The Post Office demanded he
make up the discrepancy.excluded from a scheme set
up to compensate sub-
postmasters. The group won
£58 million but were left with
less than £20,000 each after
paying legal fees. Martin said
most of his payout was
absorbed by his creditors. He
received less than 3 per cent
of the £650,000 he says he is
owed.
David Enright, a partner at
the law firm Howe & Co,
which represents Martin and
147 other Post Office victims,
said the scale of the scandal
was hard to comprehend. It is
Martin’s evidence that the
Post Office “drove him to
bankruptcy [and] long-term
unemployment and
devastated his wife’s health”.
The couple have an
insecure tenancy of their
terrace house. “We live
worrying that we won’t be
here for long,” he said.
@SabahMeddingsthe largest police force in the country.
He’s not fit to be able to make any future
decisions about policy, who should lead
and any other issues about recruitment.”
Ministers believe that Khan has an eye
on the Labour leadership and was keen to
make Dick the fall-guy for plummeting
confidence in the Met.
The mayor’s allies reject this and say
he was genuinely appalled by the findings
of the police watchdog’s recent investiga-
tion into a group of officers at Charing
Cross station involved in a culture ofARM
STRUGGLE
As a $66bn deal
to buy the Silicon
Fen chipmaker
falls through,
what’s next?BUSINESS
Priti Patel wants to bar London’s mayor,
Sadiq Khan, from any say in appointing
Scotland Yard’s next leader after he
“politicised the police” by forcing the
departure of Dame Cressida Dick.
The Home Office is said to be “looking
at all options” to freeze Khan out of the
selection process after he declared last
week that he had lost confidence in the
Metropolitan Police commissioner.
Ministers believe the Labour mayor
tore up civil service protocols for political
gain and “completely undermined the
efficacy of the [appointments] process”.
As the row between the home secre-
tary and Khan simmered this weekend, it
emerged that Patel’s preferred candidate
to replace Dick is Dame Lynne Owens,
who has recovered from breast cancer
and is understood to be seeking a new
challenge. Friends of Owens said she was“toxic masculinity”, racism, misogyny,
bullying and homophobia. Nine of the 14
officers who were investigated for poten-
tial misconduct remain in post, including
two who were promoted.
Dick, 61, who took over the Met in 2017,
said Khan had left her “no choice” but to
resign last Thursday after he rebuffed her
latest proposals to restore public trust.
She has presided over a string of scan-
dals, including the abduction and mur-
der last year of Sarah Everard by Wayne
Couzens, a serving member of the Met’s
elite diplomatic protection squad.
lCouzens’ former force, where he was
nicknamed “the rapist”, has commis-
sioned a “gender responsive policing
strategy” led by an expert in gender-
based violence. Simon Chesterman, chief
constable of the Civil Nuclear Constabu-
lary (CNC), said: “I will not tolerate any
employees holding misogynistic, racist,
homophobic or other unacceptable
views and any who do will face the sever-
est penalties. They have no place in the
CNC or the UK police service.” Three
former CNC officers who later joined the
Met are facing prosecution for allegedly
sharing “grossly offensive” messages on a
WhatsApp group that included Couzens.
@dipeshgadher‘I thought: This is how Couzens got
Sarah’, Interview, page 15Patel’s original pick for Met
chief is back in the running
The home secretary has
clashed with Sadiq Khan
over Cressida Dick’s
removal and wants the
final say on her successor
Owens is
fit and
wants a
challenge
Caroline Wheeler Political Editor
Dipesh Gadher
Home Affairs CorrespondentMillion-
pound
houses
on the rise
32 and puts down a £53,
deposit on a property costing
£264,140, which is seven
times the average salary of
first-time buyers.
Ben Everitt, the Tory MP
for Milton Keynes North and
chairman of the all-party
parliamentary group on the
housing market and housing
delivery, said: “The [£
million-plus] figures
demonstrate that the housing
affordability crisis continues
to be one of the greatest
problems that the UK faces.”
Some of the steepest
property price rises have
been in holiday hotspots,where second-home buyers
have competed with those
relocating and residents. In
Cornwall there has been a
57 per cent increase in the
number of “property
millionaires” from 2,900 to
4,550, typically in popular
areas such as Rock.
One second-home hotspot,
Burnham Market in Norfolk,
is known locally as Chelsea-
on-Sea. When the pharmacist
closed after nearly 200 years
in 2019, a mock English
Heritage blue plaque
appeared on its wall reading:
“The Pharmacy, 1830-2019,
Burnham Market: a dying
village, poisoned by wealth.
Finally dispensed with. RIP.”
Lucian Cook, head of
residential research at Savills,
said the “surge” in the
number of £1 million-plus
homes reflected the strong
house price growth “brought
about by a pandemic-induced
reassessment of housing need
and the ability to lock into
low interest rates,
turbocharged by a stamp
duty holiday”.→Continued from page 1“fully fit” after stepping down last year as
head of the National Crime Agency (NCA)
to focus on her treatment. If she does
decide to throw her hat into the ring for
the gruelling Met role, Owens, 53, is likely
to become the front-runner by a long
way. Patel wanted her to take over last
year but her illness prevented it.
Owens started her career at the Met in
1989 and later became chief constable of
Surrey. In 2016, she took control of the
NCA, often described as Britain’s FBI.
Khan’s favoured candidate is thought
to be Neil Basu, a Met assistant commis-
sioner who has led the UK’s counter-
terrorism policing strategy. The son of an
Indian father and Welsh mother, Basu,
53, would be the first Met chief from an
ethnic minority. However, he is said to
have a difficult relationship with Patel
and once criticised Boris Johnson for
describing Africans as “flag-waving picca-
ninnies” and referring to Muslim women
in niqabs as “letterboxes”.
The head of the Met is officially
appointed by the home secretary follow-
ing consultation with the mayor, who
also has a role as London’s police and
crime commissioner.
Patel is believed to be seeking a way
of bypassing Khan even if it means
some form of legislative change.
“He’s a compromised mayor,” said a
Whitehall source. “He’s politicisedDan Wilson Craw, deputy
director of the campaign
group Generation Rent, said:
“Allowing people to become
millionaires simply by
owning a house is a terrible
way to run an economy.”
The Countryside Charity,
formerly the Campaign to
Protect Rural England, said
there were about 15,
families on social housing
waiting lists in Cornwall —
the same number as
properties marketed as
holiday lets.
The housing department
said: “We are investing
£11.5 billion in affordable
housing that will deliver up to
180,000 homes. This
includes affordable homes.”
There are still some areas,
though, where there is yet to
be a £1 million sale. They
include Barking, Gateshead
and Merthyr Tydfil, according
to estate agents Knight Frank.Stuff the nimbys,
Robert Colvile, page 26
Gold rush: £1 million-plus
special, Home, pages 6-Doctor
arrested
for alleged
sex assault
two-year training and moved
to a new job in Dudley in
August 2020. It is understood
that an alarm was raised in
2021 after he was the subject
of two complaints over the
examinations of the two girls.
The doctor was excluded
from the Dudley Group NHS
Foundation Trust in March
last year and restrictions
were put on his practice by
the General Medical Council.
He was suspended from
practising in October.
Staffordshire police and
the NHS formally established
Operation Anzu in December
when he was arrested.The doctor, who we have
chosen not to name, has been
released on bail. A
representative said he
rejected any allegations that
he had committed a criminal
act and was co-operating with
the investigations.
Operation Anzu is
focussing initially on
reviewing the clinical records
of children seen by the doctor
but the hospitals will then
consider the records of
patients aged 18 to 25.
The doctor saw more than
800 patients at the Dudley
hospital between August
2020 and March last year,
including more than 350
children.
Parents of potential victims
are to be sent letters advising
them how to contact the
operation.
These cases have been
identified by a specialist
review of medical records for
patients seen by the doctor.
Staffordshire police said:
“A 34-year-old man, from the
West Midlands, was arrested
on suspicion of sexual assault→Continued from page 1in December 2021. He was
released on bail with
conditions pending further
inquiries.”
The force added that it was
“reviewing an investigation
into the same suspect it
undertook in 2018”.
The medical directors of
the two hospital trusts said
the doctor no longer worked
there and they were working
with police and could not
make further comment.
The Care Quality
Commission said it was aware
of the case. The watchdog’s
deputy chief inspector of
hospitals, Fiona Allinson,
said: “We continue to liaise
with the police and both
trusts regarding these
concerns to ensure people’s
safety.”
The University Hospitals of
North Midlands Trust said it
had set up a helpline for
concerned patients on 01782- A separate helpline
for patients at the Dudley
hospital can be contacted on
01384 322 311.
@ShaunLintern
There is not a day that passes
that Gordon Martin does not
think back to Wednesday
February 6, 2008. He was left
bankrupt when an auditor
turned up at the post office
he ran in Falmouth,
Cornwall, to take back the
keys.
He and his wife, Glynis,
had dreamt of retiring to
Queensland to be near their
grandchildren, Ben, 20, and
Jack, 16, but that dream was
now over. Martin, 78, who
still lives in Cornwall in a
small rented house, said:
“There’s not a day goes past
that I don’t sit and think
about what should have
been.”
He is one of 39 sub-
postmasters who will give
evidence at the inquiry that
starts tomorrow into the
biggest miscarriage of justiceSabah MeddingsPost Office smashed our retirement dream
TATTOO
NATION
Even the actor
Ian McKellen has
one. Will our
kink for ink
ever fade?We
wanted
to live
near our
grandkids
WAYNE PERRY FOR THE SUNDAY TIMESOver the next 12 months
Martin argued with the Post
Office. He could not explain it
but was determined not to
hand over the money.
“Something did not add up,
and I was determined to
know why,” he said. The Post
Office disagreed, and Martin
eventually paid the money.The Post Office
consistently told Martin he
was alone in raising
complaints about Horizon,
designed by the Japanese IT
giant Fujitsu. “Nothing would
add up. It had to be a fault
with the computer.”
The retired judge Sir Wyn
Williams, who is leading theLynne Owens
stepped down as
head of the
National Crime
Agency last yearBanca do Antfer
Telegram: https://t.me/bancadoantfer
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Issuhub: https://issuhub.com/user/book/