By Tess Rushin

Former Ibstock Post Office worker Susan Rudkin said two years ago in her witness statement that it had taken her over 12 years to be at a point where she could talk about 'it'.

Even then, she added, she found it hard to discuss what it has been like being a victim of the Horizon IT Post Office scandal.

She said: "The successful appeal has made no difference to my mental state.

"I'm still sad about it all because no one would listen at the time. No one would believe me.

"Those feelings don't just go away, I still feel isolated and alone now."

The ITV drama, Mr Bates v The Post Office, has brought the scandal into the headlines and become part of the news agenda - with added scrutiny on the current inquiry into what happened.

Susan, now 68, took over the Ibstock Post Office with her husband Michael in October, 2000.

Michael was the sub-postmaster and Susan worked in the branch. A sub-postmaster is someone not directly employed by the Post Office, but who runs a separate retail business which hosts a Post Office facility on their site.

After implementing the new system, Susan and Michael were advised that Horizon needed to balance before they could start trading the next day.

She said in her statement that issues arose on "many occasions" and after countless calls to the helpline, which was mostly no help at all, she stopped ringing them and began covering the shortfalls herself.

During August 2008, auditors arrived at the post office and Susan immediately told them there would be a shortfall of around £44,000.

Ibstock Post Office. Photo: Google

She said she felt "relieved" to share the burden, but her relief soon turned to shock when the auditors contacted the Post Office investigations team, which arrived the same day.

Susan said that she was in no fit state to be interviewed and that she was beside herself with panic and shock – but the interview still went ahead. She also said she was refused legal representation and Michael was not allowed into the interview room.

She was then asked to sign a written admission stating that she had taken cash from the Post Office and, at the same time of the admission, was also suspended.

Susan received a summons in 2009 and pleaded guilty to theft to avoid a custodial sentence.

She was then sentenced in May 2009 and given a 12-month suspended sentence, ordered to complete 300 hours of unpaid work and placed on an electronically monitored curfew for six months. She carried out her community service at the Victim Support charity shop in Leicester.

Between 2000 and 2014, more than 700 sub-postmasters were prosecuted based on information from the accounting system, which saw workers wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting.

But in December 2019, 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 Horizon. Since then, many sub-postmasters have had criminal convictions overturned. Susan Rudkin had her conviction quashed on December 11, 2020, after being prosecuted as a result of the Horizon accounting scandal.

While Michael has spoken to the media since the ITV screening, Susan has not.

But in December, 2020, she said: "Clearing my name has been the single most important thing in my life as it proves what I have told everybody for years, that I was always innocent and that we have been put through the most awful experience.

"I get upset whenever I speak about it simply because it has had such an impact on our lives.

"I've had years of people pointing the finger at me, I have lost friends as well, having not done a thing wrong.

"Now I can hold my head high again, as can everybody else."