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Gillian Blakey, a key player in the long-running investigation into the Horizon scandal, ran the Riby Square branch in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, for eight years from 1996 until the faulty IT system showed deficiencies worth £65,000.
Her engineer husband David, who handled the balance of the account, was accused of stealing the money, and Post Office investigators suggested he spent the money on a gambling addiction or a mistress.
He denied stealing any money, but was charged with theft and false accounting and Mrs Blakey was dismissed from her post as subpostmaster.
The theft charge was later dropped, but Mr Blakey was convicted of false accounting and sentenced to a nine-month suspended prison sentence in 2005. His conviction was overturned in 2021.
After his conviction, Blakey lost his full-time job, struggled to get his job back, and was rejected by a close family member.
The couple lost their Post Office business, their house and their car and were forced to move into rented accommodation.
David and Gillian Blakey seen above celebrating the Court of Appeal decision overturning David's previous conviction in 2021
Gillian Blakey wrote down her stress of dealing with the trauma of losing her job as a postmaster 17 years ago
Ms Blakey said in her witness statement at the 2022 inquest: “The Post Office robbed us of our business, our livelihood and our home.
'It robbed us of the chance of a peaceful, happy and prosperous retirement and the chance to sell a thriving business.'
Ms Blakey – who was part of the Group Litigation Order (GLO) introduced by Sir Alan Bates in 2019 – added that most of their share of the compensation they received was “absorbed by legal costs, which left us very little”.
Inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams told the inquiry yesterday (WED): 'My understanding is that Ms Blakey did not receive the additional compensation to which she was entitled under the GLO.
“This must be a source of great regret for everyone involved.
'On behalf of all members of the inquiry team and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to all of Mrs Blakey's family and friends.'
Mr Blakey told yesterday how his wife was still “overwhelmed with rage” at the behavior of the majority of witnesses at the inquest and said she would like delays in paying compensation to victims to end.
In a statement released by her legal representative, Hudgell Solicitors: 'Gill followed every day of the inquest and her only real regret was that she was not able to live to the end and see true justice done.
Blakey added: 'I don't think she was disappointed, but rather overcome with anger at the complete incompetence and disrespect shown by the majority of witnesses.
'I settled my case because of my heart condition and felt that by doing so we would at least have some money in the bank to enjoy. How life changes.
'I know Gill would ask the Post Office to get rid of all these schemes and end all this delay in compensating people properly.
“She would encourage them to do the right thing before more people died.”
It came as Post Office chief executive Nick Read told the inquiry his top lawyer told him not to 'dig into the details of the past' when he took up the role in 2019 following former boss Paula's controversial tenure. Vennells .
Read, who will leave the company next March, admitted he was not informed of the “scale and enormity” of the scandal – which saw more than 900 subpostmasters and others prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 over flaws in the Horizon IT system made it appear that There was no money in the agencies' accounts.
When he took the top job in 2019, the GLO group of 555 subpostmasters and the Post Office was reaching a peak, at which the company agreed to pay £58m in compensation.
In his statement to the inquiry, Mr Read said: 'The private prosecutions were presented to me as a historical matter that had ceased before 2015 and that I did not need to delve into the details of what had happened at the Post Office in the past such as this conduct it ended.'
