Postmaster who fought off armed robbers FIVE times then falsely accused of stealing £85,000 dies without compensation
A POSTMASTER hailed for bravery after fighting off armed robbers five times but then falsely accused of stealing £85,000 has died without any compensation.
Tom Brown was given a Certificate of Valour by the Post Office for battling villains wielding shotguns, handguns and knives in the attempted raids.
Yet he was later dragged into the Horizon IT scandal when an audit showed thousands of pounds had gone missing.
He was charged with false accounting and sent for trial at Newcastle crown court in 2017.
Not guilty verdicts were returned after the prosecution offered no evidence but the case ruined him financially.
He reckoned he lost a total of £500,000 — plus his good name.
His MP, Kevan Jones, took up his battle for compensation but Tom has now died without receiving a penny.
Mr Jones said: “He never saw justice. It is very sad.”
Tom, honoured for his courage in 1990, became one of the hundreds of postmasters wrongly accused because of a faulty Fujitsu computer system.
He and wife Carole took on their first post office in 1981.
They gave it up when she got breast cancer but, after she died in 2003 aged 57, he ran another.
An audit of his branch in North Kenton, Newcastle, in 2007 found a shortfall of £85,426, which he was accused of being responsible for.
In 2010, after struggling to pay the bills for the shop side of his business, the grandad was made bankrupt.
After the case against him was dropped in 2017, Tom, then 71, said: “I was accused of taking £85,000, but I said, ‘Don’t be stupid, there is something wrong with the computer’.”
He gave evidence at the Horizon inquiry in 2022.
But he died just before Christmas without seeing the Post Office and Fujitsu take full responsibility.
There were more than 900 convictions in one of Britain’s worst miscarriages of justice.
A public outcry following the ITV drama on the scandal led the Government to introduce emergency legislation to clear names and award compensation — but many fear they still face a lengthy fight to recoup all losses.
'Threats to the BBC'
THE Post Office threatened and lied to the BBC before a programme with a whistleblower, the broadcaster said.
The delivery giant’s lawyers sent letters vowing to sue Panorama if it broadcast interviews with experts in the computer system behind the IT scandal, the Beeb claimed.
They also sent intimidating letters to those experts in Fujitsu’s Horizon system lined up for the 2015 show — Trouble At The Post Office — the BBC said.
It claims Post Office bosses also told it none of their or Fujitsu’s staff could see postmasters’ accounts — despite being told it was possible. The letters delayed but failed to halt the show.
Meanhile, the Post Office yesterday apologised for holding up the scandal inquiry by failing to disclose many documents on time.