BRITAIN’S oldest Post Office scandal victim last night told how she was hounded into retirement as she nursed her dying cancer-stricken husband.

Devoted employee Betty Brown, 91, said she was forced to quit by managers who blamed her age for the financial losses at the branch she ran with fellow postmaster Oswall.

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Betty fought back tears as she told how she believes the strain triggered by the malfunctioning Horizon computer system hastened the death of her husband, whose cancer had been in remission.

She said: “As far as I am concerned, the cancer came back because of stress over the Horizon issues. That’s what finally killed him — and it came pretty damn close to killing me as well.

“The Post Office managers had the power of God Almighty and they knew it. They treated us worse than animals.

“They kept hounding me even when my husband was dying.”

Betty’s branch in Annfield Plain in Stanley, Co Durham, had been a big success before the Horizon system was introduced.

Situated in the former pit village’s main shopping street, it was named as one of the nation’s most successful.

Its increasing sales saw Betty invited to deliver a talk on the secret of her success to bosses.

However, life changed in 2000 when the Post Office sent an instructor to install Horizon, which was to see hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly branded thieves.

In just two years, Betty’s branch had gone from making a profit to losses of £42,000.

She said: “There were losses within the first week. It was anywhere from £1,000 to £3,000 weekly. I just couldn’t explain it. I rang the Horizon helpline pleading with them to investigate but they just told me, ‘Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some’.

“I once saw my losses double in the space of a few minutes while on the phone to the helpline trying to sort things out. I didn’t understand. It was terrifying.”

Her voice quaking, she added: “I’d go to bed and lie there shaking uncontrollably. My face must have looked contorted like that of someone on a fairground ride.

“One night, just before cashing up, one of my staff asked if I was alright. I didn’t realise I was shaking from head to toe at the thought of facing yet another loss.

“That night I remember I was £1,600 down. I used to feel guilty and embarrassed about the losses and blamed myself, thinking I must have done something wrong.”

Although Betty and Oswall, an ex-military police sergeant, covered the losses from their retirement savings, Post Office bosses threatened them with a police probe.

Betty said: “I put in thousands of pounds every week. I lost everything. But that wasn’t good enough for them.”

Stress was what finally killed him and came close to killing me.

Betty Brown

She revealed that Post Office staff carried out humiliating inspections and berated her and Oswall in front of their customers.

When Betty produced meticulous “old fashioned” ledger accounts to show the books were balanced, the officials ignored her and insisted that the “infallible” Horizon system’s calculations were correct.

They dismissed her as “too old and no good with technology”, she said.

“They ridiculed me and told me I was incompetent when I questioned why the losses started after Horizon was installed.”

Betty said she faced increasing pressure to retire as she nursed Oswall, who was diagnosed with melanoma in 2002.

She said: “They wouldn’t stop. They said I was one of only two under HQ special watch and I had been entered into the ‘naughty book’.

“They lied and said I was the only one experiencing problems. I felt totally isolated.

“They told me that if I didn’t get out, they would close the office down and leave me with nothing.”

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She and Oswall sold the business they spent 33 years building up at a loss in 2003. He died a year later.

Betty, who developed a nervous condition from the stress of her situation, said managers insisted on controlling every aspect of the sale.

Years later, she was contacted by campaigning former sub-postmaster Alan Bates, who is depicted on the ITV drama which sparked outcry and led to the Government bringing in emergency legislation to clear names and award compensation.

Betty is among 550 who successfully sued, receiving £120,000 in compensation last year.

She has submitted her case to be assessed by an independent panel for the rest of her losses.

She said all the Post Office management at the time should be penalised for the scandal, along with Lib Dem leader and former Post Office minister Sir Ed Davy.

She added: “It defies logic that he didn’t find it troubling or curious when Alan drew his attention to all these troubling postmaster cases.”

Tory chairman Richard Holden — Betty’s local MP — said: “Betty and all the other sub-postmasters need complete justice as swiftly as possible.

“That means apologies, support, and compensation . . . and prosecution for those who knowingly turned a blind eye to the Horizon terror or, in the worst cases, deliberately profited from it.”

Yesterday, a Post Office spokesman said: “We are doing all we can to put right the wrongs of the past, including providing full and fair compensation for those affected.”

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