'They picked on the wrong woman', says former sub-postmistress
Former subpostmistress Seema Misra recalls her ordeal and fight for justice
By BARNIE CHOUDHURY Jan 17, 2024
SEEMA MISRA, who was pregnant when she was maliciously and wrongly jailed for stealing from the Post Office, has told Eastern Eye that more than a decade later she still gets flashbacks about her time in prison and being tagged.
The former Surrey sub-postmistress revealed that she was prepared to abort her unborn son for which her husband and she had been trying for eight years if it meant having him in jail.
Misra said that no amount of money could compensate her family for the suffering they endured and continue to face.
She was one of several hundred postmistresses and masters whom the Post Office prosecuted while knowing they were using a faulty Horizon IT system.
“Just last month, I was cooking in the kitchen, and I needed to put stuff in the bin,” Misra explained. “I was just about to step outside, and then I realised oh, no, I can't go, I’ve got a tag on.
“It took me couple of minutes to realise no Seema you don't have a tag on, that was a while ago.
“I don't want to live like that, I haven't done anything wrong.
“When I go to the supermarket, when shoppers move a trolley, it can give me a shock because it reminds me of trolleys in the prison when they used to bring breakfast.
“It shouldn't be like that at all, it should be the post office suffering not me.”
Racist slurs
Once she was jailed, some villagers in West Byfleet, where the couple lived, attacked her husband, Davinder, or Dave, as he is known.
“Dave got beaten three times while I was in the prison,” the former sub-mistress recalled.
“They called him a P*** and told him to go back, they said that he had stolen the pensioners’ money what else was he waiting for?
“Because he had our son at home, he could even scream.
“He didn't tell me when I was in prison, he only told me when I came out.
“They kicked him, and he didn't make any noise because our son was at home, what if he realised something was happening and came out, they’d have him as well?”
Misra was sentenced on her son’s 10th birthday.
She fainted in the dock and woke up at the Royal Surrey Hospital shackled to a bed.
The couple hid the conviction from their son for more than a decade so he would never experience the pressure they were put under.
Shunned
Her so-called friends – both white and south Asian – melted away and wanted nothing to do with them, Misra said.
But her family and relatives rallied around.
“When the paper came out my family used to go to all the shops and buy all the papers so nobody else sees that I’ve been jailed.
“They’d throw them in the bin so nobody else sees that I was labelled the pregnant thief.”
Misra told Eastern Eye that prior to the scandal, Dave and she were entrepreneurs with a flourishing property business.
She bought a 3,000 square feet property in 2008, where she built her post office, for £200,00.
The former sub-mistress would be forced to sell that a couple of years later for around £80,000.
Misra said she experienced problems with the Horizon system from day one, while she was being trained by the Post Office.
Like many victims, the Post Office forced Misra to pay tens of thousands of pounds “shortfall” from her own purse.
“We were losing money and without any support from the Post Office we tried to find the missing money.
“We started borrowing money from the friends and family and selling jewellery.
“In the end whatever money we made from shop, we would just throw it into the Post Office, and I just gave up.”
Despite calling the helpline, the Post Office told her that she was the only one who was experiencing shortfalls – like every victim of the scandal.
‘Bizarre system’
It suspended her in March 2008 after auditors found an £80,000 hole.
But bizarrely a locum postmaster found no shortfall in his accounts – instead he had a £4,000 surplus.
So, the Post Office prosecuted her for false accounting and stealing just under £75,000.
Misra pleaded guilty to false accounting but maintained her innocence when it came to the theft charge.
“I just went to Yellow Pages and got a solicitor and most of them told me to plead guilty for the theft charges to get a lesser sentence.
“I told them that I didn’t feel comfortable pleading guilty for something which I never did, I won't be able to live with it.”
She told Eastern Eye that she had faith in the justice system and that a jury would never convict an innocent woman.
Her trail took place in October 2010, in front of all-white jury, and on the 11 November – her eldest son’s birthday – it found her guilty.
She could not keep her promise to make his favourite curry that evening.
Her faith in Britain’s justice system disappeared.
Prison life
Prison was not a pleasant experience.
“I never thought I’d come out alive,” she recalled. “People were self-harming and there was blood all over the place, I thought anybody would come and stab me or I could get contaminated with some sort of disease.”
Misra served four of the 15-month sentence and was let out in March 2011 for good behaviour.
Yet in June she faced the ignominy of giving birth to her second son while wearing an electronic tag.
Her ordeal was far from over, she said.
“We lost everything, we had to sell the business at a loss, the Post Office confiscated our buy-to-let property in London, which we paid more than £100,000 pounds in 2000.
“I had to go to back to the court again, because the Post Office said I need to pay the legal fees, so they confiscated property.”
Misra had her conviction overturned in 2021, along with two others, after the Court of Appeal found that the Post Office had abused its powers.
But even today, she told Eastern Eye that she did not have the courage to let her younger son know about her suffering.
And it is clear how much she despises her former employer.
“They are like the mafia, but they are not above the law.
“They forced my barrister and solicitor to step down, and that was a scary moment.
“If they can get my solicitor and barrister to step down, they're capable of with anything.
“They wanted to make an example of me and anyone who criticised Horizon, but they picked on the wrong woman.
“They thought I was some little Indian woman who wouldn’t fight back, and they were wrong.”
He described it using a disturbing metaphor of its then chief executive, Paula Vennels, having “her knee pressed on Seema Misra’s neck so she cannot breathe”, reminiscent of the death of the black America, George Floyd.
Misra told this newspaper that the Post Office had destroyed their dreams.
The government, she said, must act to speed up the compensation process and secure true justice for those whose lives the Post Office had ruined.
One unintended consequence is that her eldest son tells anyone meeting his mum for the first time her terrible story, to avoid surprises.
Yet remarkably, despite what Misra has been through, she told Eastern Eye that “life was good”.
“We were thinking we want to set up charities in the UK and India to help people that's for sure,” Misra said.
“Our outlook on life’s changed, and we want to give some back to community.”
MINISTER for equalities, Seema Malhotra, this week hosted a race equalities meeting at Downing Street and pledged to work for a fairer society, ahead of Black History Month, observed in October.
Ethnic minority leaders and representatives from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the British Business Bank, the West Midlands Combined Authority, the National Police Chiefs' Council and Avon and Somerset Police attended a meeting of the Race Equality Engagement Group (REEG) on Monday (29).
Its chair is Baroness Doreen Lawrence.
Malhotra said, “No one should be held back or denied opportunities because of their race.
“I am committed to working closely with the group to remove barriers, strengthen accountability and help create a fairer society for communities up and down the country.”
Improving access to investment for ethnic minority led businesses and the Police Race Action Plan were on the agenda for the meeting.
“The Race Equality Engagement Group is working to ensure ethnic minorities' voices are heard having their say on the issues that matter most to them. I look forward to working with members to bring about real and lasting progress on race equality,” said Lawrence.
“Collaboration between ethnic minority communities and the government is crucial in this current climate.”
The REEG, set up in March, aims to strengthen the government's links with ethnic minority communities.
An Equality (Race and Disability) Bill is set to be introduced to address mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers, which the government believes would be a significant step towards greater workplace equality.
Black History Month is marked in October and celebrates the contribution of black and ethnic minority leaders, activists and pioneers.
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A JUDGE has described how vulnerable young girls were let down by local authorities in northern England as he jailed seven members of a child sexual exploitation gang for between 12 to 35 years on Wednesday (1).
The men, all of south Asian descent, exploited at least two vulnerable white teenage girls in Rochdale, near Manchester, using them as "sex slaves".
They were repeatedly raped over a five-year period starting in 2001, a court heard.
Jurors heard they were forced to have sex "with multiple men on the same day, in filthy flats and on rancid mattresses".
"They were passed around for sex - abused, humiliated, degraded and then discarded," judge Jonathan Seely said on passing sentence.
The longest sentence of 35 years went to market stallholder Mohammed Zahid, 65.
The father-of-three gave free underwear from his lingerie stall to both teenagers, alongside money, alcohol and food, expecting in return regular sex with him and his friends.
The Manchester resident was found guilty of 20 offences including rape, indecency with a child, and attempting to procure unlawful sexual intercourse from a girl.
Fellow Rochdale market traders Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, and Kasir Bashir, 50, both of Oldham, received jail terms of 27 years and 29 years, respectively.
Both were convicted of offences including rape and indecency with a child.
Bashir, who absconded before the trial began and is believed to have fled abroad, was sentenced in absentia.
Taxi drivers Mohammed Shahzad, 44, Naheem Akram, 49, and Nisar Hussain, 41, all of Rochdale, were convicted of multiple counts of rape and received sentences ranging from 19 to 26 years.
A final offender, 39-year-old Roheez Khan, of Rochdale, was jailed for 12 years for a single count of rape.
The men sentenced on Wednesday were prosecuted as part of Operation Lytton, a police investigation launched in 2015 into historical child sexual exploitation in Rochdale.
Police probes into historic child sexual exploitation in Rochdale have so far led to the conviction of 32 offenders, including the seven sentenced on Wednesday, according to the police.
The perpetrators have collectively been jailed for more than 450 years.
Handing down the jail terms, Seely said the two victims "were highly vulnerable, both had deeply troubled backgrounds and were known to the authorities".
Seven men jailed for more than 170 years for Rochdale child sexual exploitation
"They were highly susceptible to the advances of these men and others, and both were sexually abused by numerous other men," he noted.
"Both were seriously let down by those whose job it was to protect them."
A jury hearing their four-month trial in Manchester found all seven guilty in June of rape and dozens of other offences, after both victims gave evidence in court.
Social services and police have apologised for their past failings surrounding the victims.
Liz Fell, specialist prosecutor in the case, thanked both victims for their "strength and dignity throughout what has been a lengthy and challenging legal process".
"Their determination to see justice done has been fundamental to securing these convictions," she said, noting the defendants had failed to show the "slightest remorse".
Sharon Hubber, director of children’s services at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “Rochdale Borough Council is in a very different place to where it once was more than a decade ago, and our work to improve our safeguarding practice and our response to child sexual exploitation has been recognised in every Ofsted inspection since 2014.
“We will not be complacent however, and we remain committed to doing all that we can with our partners to protect and support victims and survivors.
“We also continue to provide a safe and supportive environment to anyone affected by non-recent abuse or exploitation to ensure people get the right support that they need.”
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Speaking at a fringe event during the Labour Party conference, the new home secretary said she is committed to serving Keir Starmer but stopped short of ruling out her own leadership ambitions.
“I’m very happy to serve Keir Starmer,” she said. “You shouldn’t believe anyone in politics who says they’re not ambitious about the top job because they’re basically lying,” she told The Times.
When asked directly if she sees herself as a future leader, Mahmood replied: “If I answer that question, I’m not going to be home secretary any more.”
In the same session, she backed the introduction of digital identity cards to tackle benefit fraud and illegal work. “It’s always been a no-brainer if one of the results of having an ID card is to clamp down on the ability of people to cheat the system,” she said.
Mahmood also set out her plan to require migrants to show ten years’ residence and evidence of contribution, such as volunteering or skilled jobs, before being granted indefinite leave to remain.
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FROM today (October 1), all GP practices in England are required to offer online appointment bookings throughout the day.
The government said the move is aimed at reducing the “8am scramble” when patients try to get through on the phone.
Surgeries will now have to provide the service from 08:00 to 18:30, Monday to Friday. Patients will be able to request non-urgent appointments, describe symptoms, ask questions and request a call back, BBC reported.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has warned that serious health problems could be missed, creating a “potential online triage tsunami.”
It has called for safeguards, such as allowing practices to switch off online booking if staff cannot cope with demand, and said it may consider industrial action in the form of work-to-rule.
Health ministers have decided to proceed, saying £1.1 billion of additional funding has been invested to support the change.
Care Minister Stephen Kinnock said: “We promised to tackle the 8am scramble and make it easier for patients to access their GP practice – and that's exactly what we're delivering.”
NHS England’s Dr Amanda Doyle said the step would help modernise general practice, while Jacob Lant of National Voices said online booking was “a fundamental building block of a 21st Century NHS.”
Practices must also now publish a new charter, “You and Your GP,” on their websites, setting out patient expectations and how feedback can be given.
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Nigel Farage speaks during the Reform UK party conference in Birmingham on September 6, 2025. (Photo: Reuters)
Farage accuses Starmer of endangering Reform supporters with racism claims
Starmer urges voters to reject Reform and back Labour’s plan to “renew Britain”
Labour leader vows to act on illegal immigration while opposing racism
Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves warn of tough fiscal choices ahead
NIGEL FARAGE has rejected prime minister Keir Starmer’s criticism of Reform UK, saying accusations of racism were a “very, very low blow” that put his party’s supporters and campaigners at risk.
“To accuse countless millions of being racist is a very, very low blow,” Farage said on Tuesday. “It directly threatens the safety of our elected officials and our campaigners.”
Farage was responding after Starmer used Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool to attack Reform, accusing it of promoting “snake oil” and division.
Starmer calls for unity
Starmer urged working-class voters to reject Reform and instead back his vision of “a Britain built for all.” He appealed for patience with his Labour government, saying it was taking its first steps to “renew Britain.”
“No matter how many people tell me it can’t be done, I believe Britain can come together,” Starmer told delegates.
“We can all see our country faces a choice, a defining choice. Britain stands at a fork in the road. We can choose decency, or we can choose division. Renewal or decline,” he said.
Starmer also sought to claim patriotism for Labour, with Union flags waved in the hall. “For me, patriotism is about love and pride, about serving an interest that is more than yourself, a common good,” he said.
“And the question I ask seriously of Nigel Farage and Reform is, do they love our country … or do they just want to stir the pot of division, because that’s worked in their interests?”
Immigration and racism
Starmer said his government would act against illegal immigration but would also oppose racism and those “who say or imply the people cannot be English or British because of the colour of their skin.”
His remarks drew support from Labour members. “Farage doesn’t care about normal people, and it was important we get that message out,” said Shabaan Saleem, a 21-year-old Labour councillor.
Fiscal challenges ahead
Starmer also acknowledged tough economic choices. He said tax rises last year, the biggest in more than three decades, had been a one-off, but further increases could be needed to address a fiscal shortfall.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves warned against easing fiscal rules to allow more spending, saying those who pressed her to do so were “wrong, dangerously so,” leaving the option of tax rises on the table.
Starmer said Labour must be ready for difficult decisions. “It is a test. A fight for the soul of our country, every bit as big as rebuilding Britain after the war,” he said.
“And yet we need to be clear that our path, the path of renewal, it’s long, it’s difficult, it requires decisions that are not cost-free or easy. Decisions that will not always be comfortable for our party.”