A POSTMASTER today gave evidence to the inquiry examining the Post Office scandal which led to his fellow postmasters across the country being wrongly convicted for fraud.

Mohammed Amir runs the Little Lever branch and says his branch was still experiencing shortfalls which led to more 700 sub-postmasters being accused of theft, fraud and false accounting between 2000 and 2014, due to a flaw in the Horizon accounting IT system.

A total of 72 former sub-postmasters have had their names cleared so far.

In December 2019 a High Court judge ruled that Horizon contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and there was a “material risk” that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.

Mr Amir started working as a subpostmaster in 2004.

He told the inquiry he suffered a heart attack aged 33 due to stress while running three branches in Bolton and Manchester.

The father-of-five said they often found shortfalls of thousands of pounds across the three branches and got little help from the Post Office helpline.

Mr Amir said he tried to make up the missing funds out of his own pocket – ultimately paying about £130,000 to the Post Office – and consequently spiralled into debt.

He said: “I was convinced it was the system but I could not prove anything and the only help we had was from the helpline, but they were no help.”

He told the inquiry: “Looking back at everything now it has opened old wounds up.

“I’m still suffering from severe depression. It did change my life and I have never been the same.”

After selling two of the branches, Mr Amir said how his sister now runs the remaining Little Lever branch in Bolton and they are still experiencing “hundreds” of pounds in shortfalls that they continue to cover.

The inquiry, which is expected to run for the rest of this year, is looking into whether the Post Office knew about faults in the IT system and will also ask how staff were made to take the blame.

Jason Beer QC, counsel to the inquiry, said during his opening that the ordeal of those affected could be described as “the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history”.