Post Office Horizon victim ‘died a broken man’ two years after wrongful conviction, wife says after successfully overturning ruling
- William Quarm died in 2012, two years after being wrongfully convicted
A victim of the Post Office Horizon scandal died ‘a broken man’ after being wrongfully convicted of embezzling thousands of pounds, his wife has said.
William Quarm was convicted in 2010 of stealing from a Post Office he ran in North Uist, the Outer Hebrides, and was ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
He died just two years later, only weeks before his 70th birthday.
‘My husband pleaded guilty because he was told he was going to jail if he didn’t,’ wife Anne Quarm, 72, told The Daily Record.
‘He was a broken man and very upset and not well, as it later turned out.’
Ms Quarm succeeded last year in getting his conviction overturned when the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh finally confirmed he was wrongly prosecuted.
She said she ‘promised him I would try my very best to clear his name’ and ‘asked for him to forgive anyone who had done him wrong and to go in peace.
‘He agreed to do that and that was a blessing.’
The Post Office Horizon scandal saw more than 700 Post Office operators prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 for theft, fraud and false accounting due to faulty accounting software.
William Quarm died ‘a broken man’ after his wrongful conviction, his wife has revealed
On September 18, 2023, the Post Office said it would compensate victims wrongfully convicted with an ‘up front sum of £600,000’
Mr Quarm, had worked as a postmaster for almost 14 years, running Paible Post Office and shop in Bayhead, North Uist.
READ MORE: Five former postmasters who were wrongly convicted of stealing from their employer in Post Office Horizon scandal are finally cleared
Police arrived to question him over finances in 2010.
Threatened with jail, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid work.
Starting in 1999, the Post Office began installing Horizon accounting systems – but faults in the software led to thousands of users suffering unexplained losses in their branches’ accounts.
The Post Office subsequently demanded that the subpostmasters and subpostmistresses cover the shortfalls, with more than 700 wrongfully prosecuted for theft, fraud and false accounting over the next 16 years.
It was not until December 2019 that a High Court judge ruled that the system contained a number of ‘bugs, errors and defects’ and there was a ‘material risk’ that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were in fact caused by it.
Many have since had convictions overturned – but some reportedly took their own lives after being hounded for cash that was not missing.
A Daily Mail investigation in 2021 uncovered a series of appalling human tragedies that relatives have blamed on the company’s persecution of its own staff over two decades.
William and Anne Quarm, pictured together. Ms Quarm said she promised her husband before he died that she would seek justice
At least 19 individuals died before justice could be done, including three who took their own lives, one suspected suicide and a series of deaths from stress-related illnesses, the investigation found.
On September 18, 2023, the Post Office said it would compensate victims wrongfully convicted with an ‘up front sum of £600,000’.
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