Confessing to a crime you didn’t commit carries a price. If anybody can attest to that, it is Ravinder Naga.
It’s a price that cuts far deeper than any penalty distributed by the courts. There’s the humiliation of strolling the gauntlet of whispered feedback, the gnaw of tension about the future.
Ravinder, 49, has endured this – and extra –these final 15 years. ‘I could be mendacity if I mentioned there haven’t been instances when it could have been simpler simply to finish it,’ he says. ‘At instances there was no gentle. I was often known as the man who robbed his personal mother.’
Still, the father of two would do the similar once more, even when he bitterly regrets that his household was ever put in the place the place he felt he had to. But as he places it: ‘My father didn’t increase me to be a coward.’
There was actually no cowardice in the resolution that pitched the quick-talking Scotsman into the nightmare from which he’s solely simply rising.
Ravinder Naga, 49, along with his mother Gurbash Kaur Naga
Pictured:Â Ravinder as a child along with his mother
Ravinder confessed to a crime that he didn’t commit to defend his motherÂ
Back in 2009, Ravinder’s mother Gurbash Kaur Naga, recognized to prospects and pals alike as Paula, was the sub-postmistress of Belville Street Post Office, in Greenock, Inverclyde. Now 70, she took over the bustling enterprise along with her husband Mohan Singh Naga, often known as Martin, in 1994.
Son Ravinder would typically assist, much more so after the sudden and surprising demise of his father, aged 46, in 1999.
What occurred subsequent is, after all, depressingly acquainted, thanks largely to this 12 months’s award-wining ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
Now often known as considered one of the best miscarriages of justice ever seen in Britain, greater than 700 Post Office sub-postmasters have been prosecuted for stealing between 1999 and 2015 after defective Horizon IT software program made it look as if cash was lacking from their outlets.
Many a whole lot have been convicted, some jailed and, tragically, a few took their very own lives. The Naga household have been additionally victims.
Until this week, Ravinder’s identify had remained in the background, however the act of filial love that plunged him into the mire is deeply shifting. For he confessed to stealing £35,000 when he hadn’t touched a penny, all to save his mother – who was additionally solely harmless – from the threat of a prison sentence that he feared would kill her.
Only this week – 14 years after showing in a Scottish courtroom – was his conviction lastly quashed. Ravinder cried when he discovered he had been exonerated however any reduction he feels is tempered by the fury at what his household have endured – and what he is aware of others nonetheless endure.
As he says: ‘If somebody abuses you for ten years then stops, are you grateful? No, you’re livid.
Ravinder Naga, 49, along with his mother Gurbash Kaur Naga
Ravinder confessed to stealing £35,000 when he hadn’t touched a penny, all to save his mother
‘It’s not simply the postmaster or sub-postmaster that suffers [when the accusation lands] – everybody who works there struggles to get a job that entails dealing with cash. Families are torn aside.’
At its coronary heart, the Naga household story is considered one of onerous work, as Ravinder and Gurbash clarify to me from their shared dwelling in Scotland.
Three of Ravinder’s grandparents have been orphans and so they instilled a willpower in their youngsters that has handed down generations.
Gurbash got here to the UK from India aged seven and Mohan was 12; they ultimately married and began their household – Ravinder has a youthful sister – in Birmingham. Mohan labored as a welder and had begun coaching to be an electrician when he acquired the alternative to run a store in Scotland.
Ravinder was six when the household moved north however his childhood experiences left scars. ‘There was just one different Asian household in the space,’ he says.
There was some surprising racism and considered one of his deepest regrets about the Post Office nightmare is that his monetary stability was derailed simply at the level when he and his spouse have been wanting to transfer to give their very own youngsters a totally different upbringing.
Still, in so some ways Mohan and Gurbash made it a success. They constructed up their store, opened a restaurant, a key restore store after which in 1994 the alternative to purchase the publish workplace got here alongside. It was Ravinder, then 19, who noticed that it was on the market.
But 5 years later Mohan died immediately after creating a blood clot in his eye.
‘An ambulance took him to hospital and I went to ensure that he was settled,’ says Ravinder. ‘The final dialog I had with him, he made me promise that it doesn’t matter what, I’d all the time take care of my mum and my sister. So so far as I’m involved, I’m simply honouring my guarantees.’
The loss was a heavy blow to the household. There was no life insurance coverage and, at 44, Gurbash wasn’t entitled to any of her late husband’s pension contributions, so work saved all of them going.
But every little thing crumbled once more on March 26, 2009, when a ‘lady from the Post Office’ arrived in Belville Street to depend the money in the protected.
Gurbash got here to the UK from India aged seven and Mohan was 12; they ultimately married and began their household
Ravinder took blame to defend his harmless mother, Gurbash (pictured collectively)Â
When she completed, she requested ‘is there any extra?’
Gurbash was scrupulous about ensuring all her accounting matched up, proper down to the final stamp –a behavior she instilled in everybody she labored with. ‘Any shortfall, any discrepancy was one thing you have been all the time on the lookout for,’ she says. ‘You knew the repercussions if the figures didn’t match.’
During the six years she had presided over her publish workplace earlier than the introduction of the Horizon system, she says there have been not often any issues with accounting, however after it was introduced in there was an inexplicable rise in the variety of instances hiccups in the numbers would necessitate her to name for IT help.
Now we all know the Horizon system had bugs that prompted phantom shortfalls, however then, when requested whether or not there was extra money unaccounted for, her coronary heart sank.
Her worst fears have been realised when a crew of auditors arrived inside hours of the first lady from the Post Office and pronounced they’d discovered a ‘shortfall’ of greater than £30,000.
Gurbash, a lady who had twice discovered herself confronted by robbers as she labored at the publish workplace counter, knew she had not made any errors. Even so, panic descended.
‘It was like I had dropped down a manhole,’ she says.
She instantly referred to as Ravinder, who then had a two-year-old son and a spouse pregnant with their second youngster. He was horrified to arrive and see his mother in such anguish. ‘To see my mum standing there like a misplaced youngster; I hadn’t seen that earlier than and we’ve been by a lot.’
Instinctively, he did the solely factor he felt he may. ‘Don’t fear,’ he instructed her.
‘Worst come to worst, if something occurs, I’m going to take the blame for it.’
Never did he think about that he would find yourself doing simply that.
He cannot pinpoint exactly when he realised he was going to have to take his false confession all the manner to courtroom, nevertheless it got here after he and his sister may discover no believable clarification for what had occurred.
‘The solely manner £35,000 may have been lacking was if it was embezzled over time, however I knew my mum would by no means have completed that. She had no want to do this as a result of we have been incomes good cash. We had two companies, plus we had property rented out.
‘We tried to discover out the place the cash went. We examined each single avenue; then when my sister regarded up on-line and noticed that postmasters have been going to jail left, proper and centre – that is after we thought, maintain on a minute, there isn’t any manner out of this.
‘At the finish of the day, anyone’s going to have to take the blame for this.’
Ravinder Naga is pictured as a child along with his mother PaulaÂ
In 2010, Ravinder turned up at courtroom with £35,000 he had rapidly borrowed from his uncle to repay the ‘loss’ and walked out a convicted thief
The humiliation of getting their good identify questioned had already had a large affect on the household and so they felt pressured to shut their companies straight after the auditors had visited.
Ravinder was terrified about the affect the stress of all of it was having on his mother and his pregnant spouse.
So when Gurbash was later taken into police custody for questioning, Ravinder, afraid she would not survive a prison sentence, made a confession that appears preposterous as he particulars it now.
He mentioned he had gone to take his mum lunch, then whereas her again was turned siphoned away the money from the publish workplace protected and into a bag – regardless of the truth the protected safety system was programmed to solely permit entry after a 40-minute delay.
‘I’m not a genius, however I managed to crack a protected in mainly ten seconds, fill a bag and stroll out.’
Why was the plausibility of his account not probed? ‘They simply needed somebody to carry the can,’ he says.
In 2010, Ravinder turned up at courtroom with £35,000 he had rapidly borrowed from his uncle to repay the ‘loss’ and walked out a convicted thief with an order to full 300 hours of group service. But the actual sentence got here after. ‘When your popularity is that you’re a thief and never simply a thief, however one who stole from your personal mum, folks aren’t speeding to rent you,’ says Ravinder.
‘I had been working since I was a youngster. I had constructed these companies with my mother and father, however I had my personal enterprise pursuits too. I had a property portfolio I was constructing. But how can I go to the financial institution? How can I get folks to belief me after that? All my traders walked away from me.’
After his conviction Ravinder – who had as soon as been in a position to afford to pay for his household to vacation in India for six weeks a 12 months – had to take any job he may, figuring out the place suspicions would fall if there was ever cash quick.
His sister helped him discover work in a enterprise centre – manning the reception desk by day, then cleansing the constructing by night time.
‘Imagine,’ implores Ravinder. ‘You’ve acquired your self in a first rate place and you then’re sitting in the reception of a little enterprise centre and when everybody goes dwelling you’re cleansing up their p*** and s***.’
The affect was onerous on everybody. Most stark was the change wrought on Gurbash, who in a single day went from sturdy businesswoman to stay-at-home grandmother.
‘When I stopped at the publish workplace, I may have gone out to work. I was skilled sufficient to discover work, however I simply didn’t need to work amongst folks,’ she says.
Why not? ‘The stigma,’ she explains sadly. ‘It was hanging over us, each considered one of us felt it.’
She has additionally had to wrestle with the enormity of what her son did.
‘I assume he simply took the accountability for considering he may deal with issues higher than me at the moment,’ she says, regretfully.
Never did Gurbash assume her son would go to courtroom. She thought she would resign, the money could be returned and that will be it.
‘It was very onerous. I did really feel responsible. I did remorse ever shopping for that publish workplace.’
The store, which the household nonetheless personal, remained an agonising presence in their lives, boarded up, and a place Ravinder and his spouse had to go daily on the faculty run.
‘We used to inform the youngsters that used to be Granny’s publish workplace. They clearly didn’t know the full story then. They do now.’
This week, mother and son prised open the locks and returned for the first time, uncovering a dusty time warp of what as soon as was. Since 2009 the nature of the complete road has modified – outlets closed, flats empty.
‘It was the hub of the group,’ says Ravinder sadly of the household’s defunct enterprise.
‘They killed the complete group,’ he says, clearly referring to the Post Office.
Pictured: Paula Vennells go away the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry (file image)Â
A Post Office spokesman mentioned: ‘We are actually sorry for the struggling brought on by the Post Office’s previous actions. We are doing all we are able to to assist victims get solutions and to put issues proper.’
It was about 5 years in the past when Ravinder caught a whisper of circumstances being reviewed.
The trigger was given a enhance earlier this 12 months when Mr Bates vs The Post Office struck a chord with the nation, elevating consciousness of the plight of so many former postmasters and mistresses. As Ravinder drily factors out: ‘We’re simply fortunate that the programme was so effectively made. Imagine it was a mediocre programme?’
It was the Post Office who referred his case to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, however as he was not the postmaster or sub-postmaster, it was far from clear reduce that he could be exonerated in laws handed by the Scottish parliament to mechanically clear victims of the Horizon scandal.
Ravinder provides credit score to his solicitor Greg Cunningham and his household, for the truth he didn’t hand over.
As for what he did, he says: ‘It’s my mum. I know, individuals are occurring [saying] what I’ve completed is meant to be one thing wonderful, however to me any human being who would not take care of one other one that’s weak ought to be ashamed of themselves.’
There has been no compensation but for the Naga household, nor have they seen any of the £35,000 they repaid.
But Ravinder’s ideas aren’t on money, moderately on those that suffered and endure nonetheless.
‘It’s not about the undeniable fact that we had the power to rebuild or that we had the power to keep it up,’ he says sadly. ‘What about all the individuals who could not?’
A Post Office spokesman mentioned: ‘We are actually sorry for the struggling brought on by the Post Office’s previous actions. We are doing all we are able to to assist victims get solutions and to put issues proper.’
But, understandably, Ravinder’s anger stays visceral.
‘They took regular, joyful folks and took them to the level the place even painkillers and alcohol would not numb their ache.
‘We owe it to the others to communicate up. If it helps one individual discover a little bit of power to get by this, then it has been worthwhile.’
