Harjinder Butoy Wiki
Harjinder Butoy Biography
Who is Harjinder Butoy?
Harjinder Butoy, 45, ran the Sutton-in-Ashfield Post Office with his wife in Nottinghamshire until he was arrested, charged and then jailed for three years and three months in 2008 for stealing £208,000.
His prison sentence, believed to be one of the largest sentences among the Horizon cases, was accompanied by a £60,000 forfeiture order, which forced Mr Butoy into bankruptcy.
Speaking today about an investigation into the scandal, Butoy said his family was “destroyed” by the false conviction as he described his ordeal in prison, losing more than six stones while battling stress “every day”.
Family
He said: ‘I kept thinking about how I ended up here, just thinking about my family. It was the same for them as it was for me: we were all destroyed.
Butoy said it was “horrible” for his wife and three children, who had to move in with their parents in Chesterfield after the business closed.
Mr. Butoy was among more than 700 deputy postmasters and deputy postmasters (SPMs) prosecuted between 2000 and 2014, according to information from the Horizon IT system, installed and maintained by Fujitsu.
However, in December 2019, a High Court judge ruled that Horizon contained a number of “errors and defects” and that there was a “material risk” that the system would cause deficits in Post Office branch accounts. .
The High Court overturned Mr. Butoy’s conviction along with those of 38 other former postmasters in April last year.
Investigation
The former deputy postmaster said that between 2004 and 2007, his branch had no problem passing Post Office audits and even signed an audit with no problems a week before his arrest.
But on April 24, 2007, he was arrested by officers from the Criminal Investigation Department after a group of people showed up at his branch for a security audit and discovered that £208,000 was missing.
Butoy said he was “shocked,” “confused” and “embarrassed” when customers saw him being taken away by police.
In September 2008, he faced trial at Nottingham Crown Court, where he maintained his innocence and questioned whether Horizon’s information was correct, but the post office argued that it was “100% sound”.
Butoy said that when the guilty verdict came in “it just fell apart” and “I wasn’t ready for it.” He said he ended up filing for bankruptcy as he struggled to pay off the £60,000.
‘Everything has collapsed for me. I no longer have confidence in myself,” he said. “I had a really good reputation with the public and then I lost it because of the click.”
About what he wants now from the Post Office, he said: ‘I want someone to go to jail’.
William David Graham, 53, a former branch manager, said he was diagnosed with depression after being wrongfully convicted of falsifying accounts.
The father of two, who had worked his way up to the post office since 1992, told the inquiry that he used to be “the life and soul of the party”.
Identified
Mr. Graham eventually left the Post Office to become the manager of the Riverside branch in Sevenoaks.
But a £65,000 shortfall was misidentified in 2009 and he was charged with theft and falsifying accounts before reaching a plea deal in 2011.
After paying a found £5,000 shortfall in 2004 out of his own pocket, Graham discovered a £50,000 shortfall, which he chose not to report.
“That was my entire salary for a year,” he said. “That’s how I put food on the table for my wife and kids.”
Auditors discovered £65,000 missing from the accounts in early 2009 and he admitted to inflating the figure to make the balance appear correct.
He was offered a plea deal to avoid a prison sentence in 2011 and was given a 32-week suspended prison sentence.
“When they said the 32 weeks in jail, the gap before they said it was suspended, I could hear my wife screaming,” Graham said, visibly emotional as he described the hearing as “hell.”
After the ordeal, he said, “I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with depression because I felt useless.”
Mr Graham added: ‘I have a wife and children at home. I couldn’t provide for them.’
On what he wants now, Graham said: “I just want the post office to stand up and say, we knew there was a problem, this is when it started, this is what we didn’t do, this is what we should have.” done and get justice for people who have been through this pain.’
The investigation, which is expected to last the rest of this year, is looking into whether the Post Office knew about flaws in the IT system and will also ask how staff were made to take the blame.
Jason Beer QC, a lawyer for the investigation, said during his opening that the ordeal of those affected could be concluded as “the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history”.
