Oldest Post Office scandal sufferer Betty Brown honoured with OBE | EUROtoday

The oldest surviving sufferer of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal has been appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her providers to justice after campaigning towards wrongful prosecutions.

Betty Brown, 92, ran the Annfield Plain Post Office in County Durham together with her late husband Oswall from 1985. But they have been compelled out in 2003 after spending greater than £50,000 of their financial savings to cowl non-existent shortfalls.

She just lately obtained her long-awaited settlement from one of many authorities’s compensation schemes.

Mrs Brown instructed BBC Breakfast she accepted the popularity within the New Year Honours checklist on behalf of all of the victims of the scandal.

“Every one of them should have an OBE,” she stated.

“Every one of them for what they’ve [Post Office] put us through and what we have stood solid and faithful for. I did it for justice.”

The Horizon IT system was accountable for greater than 900 sub-postmasters being wrongfully prosecuted due to it offering incorrect info. Thousands extra, like Mrs Brown, have been compelled to make up for the alleged losses at their branches throughout the UK.

The scandal has been described as one of many widest miscarriages of justice within the UK.

Mrs Brown stated she was “honoured and humbled” to be made an OBE, including she had lastly “been heard by the system”.

Mrs Brown will not be the primary Post Office campaigner to be recognised within the New Year Honours checklist. A 12 months in the past 4 former sub-postmasters turned campaigners have been honoured for his or her providers to justice, and Sir Alan Bates – who was featured within the ITV drama “Mr Bates vs The Post Office” – was knighted in 2024.

The 92-year-old was one of many unique 555 victims who took half within the landmark group authorized motion led by Sir Alan towards the Post Office.

Her department had been one of the crucial profitable within the area however ultimately she needed to promote it at a loss.

Talking about what occurred, she beforehand stated it “absolutely destroyed my whole life”.

Both Mrs Brown and Sir Alan have been a part of the Group Litigation Order compensation scheme, and people claimants have been provided the choice of taking a hard and fast sum of £75,000 or pursuing their very own settlement.

After receiving her payout in November 2025, she instructed the BBC: “At last, after 26 years, they’ve recognised justice,” and added: “pity they took so long.”

A authorities spokesperson stated: “We must never lose sight of the Horizon scandal’s human impact on postmasters and their families, which the Horizon inquiry has highlighted so well.

“Betty Brown has been a fierce advocate for postmasters and this authorities has now paid out over £1.3bn to greater than 10,000 victims.

When the primary report of the official inquiry into the scandal was revealed in July, the Post Office stated it apologised “unreservedly” for the struggling “caused to postmasters and their loved ones”.