Sub-postmaster Jo Hamilton has recorded an audio memoir opening up on the Post Office scandal with Oxfordshire presenter Mark Pougatch.

Ms Hamilton is one of the 3,500 sub-postmasters falsely blamed for financial shortfalls in their Post Offices and has been campaigning for more than 25 years to clear their names.

Despite her innocence, under duress from the Post Office, she pleaded guilty to a charge of false accounting over a £36,000 shortfall, but her case should never have gone to court.

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Her conviction has subsequently been described as an “affront to justice” and was finally overturned in 2021, after 15 years.

Ms Hamilton is one of more than 900 individuals wrongfully prosecuted due to faulty accounting software, which is the subject of the current Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry.

She said: “I have attended the inquiry dozens of times since it began.

“I am not shocked by anything anymore and the documents that have emerged confirm what we suspected was going on behind the scenes.

“Sadly, most key witnesses have had corporate amnesia so what we need now is Paula Vennells to be open and honest with us and put simply, ‘tell the truth’.

“The victims, myself included, must have the truth for our journey to closure.”

The episode, on the podcast series Talking Down Memory Lane,  has been released today (Wednesday, May 22), on the first day of former Post Office chief Paula Vennells’ evidence to the Horizon IT Inquiry.

In the inquiry, Ms Vennells has admitted she “made mistakes” but denied there was a conspiracy to cover up the Horizon scandal.

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British viewers were given a glimpse into Ms Hamilton’s story in the award-winning ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, where she was portrayed by actress Monica Dolan.

Although a fictionalised account of real events, she reveals in the podcast that many of the series’ most powerful moments were “like you saw in the drama”.

Oxford Mail: Paula Vennells Paula Vennells Interviewed by broadcaster and journalist Mr Pougatch, based in north Oxfordshire, Ms Hamilton discusses the bitterly rough scales of justice, the personal impact of the quarter-century ordeal and the unwavering support of her community.

Mr Pougatch said: “I couldn’t believe how Jo had managed to keep going when the corporate tank was rolling over her and her innocent colleagues, the scandal of the Post Office groupthink becoming more obvious every day."

The audio memoir production company is founded by Mr Pougatch’s wife, Victoria Pougatch.

She said: “When I sat down to watch Mr Bates vs The Post Office on New Year’s Day, I had no sense of the impact that drama would have not only on me but also on the millions of others who saw it.

"I was angry, outraged, and incredulous at the injustices suffered by the victims - like Jo Hamilton - of the Post Office scandal.”