Shoreham Post Office boss Sami Sabet has conviction overturned

But the former Sussex sub-postmaster says the decision cannot take back the heartache and catalogue of health issues the ordeal caused.

Sami Sabet received a 12-month suspended prison sentence in 2009 after being accused of stealing £50,000 from his two branches in Shoreham and Brighton.

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He had to use credit cards and loans to pay the money back, when it was in fact the Post Office's Horizon IT system that created the false shortfall.

Sami Sabet, from Shoreham, was among a number of former sub-postmasters to have their conviction overturned at the Court of Appeal

Mr Sabet, now 65, says he feels "vindicated" after having his conviction for false accounting overturned at the Court of Appeal.

“It’s an incredible feeling that’s taken almost 12 years,” he said. “There wasn’t a single minute of a day that passed without me playing back what has happened and thinking of the unfairness of it.”

Mr Sabet, who has since retired due to ill health, said he has suffered numerous health issues since the ordeal began.

“I spent 10 years in absolute misery,” he said. “I got diabetes, had a heart attack, had open heart surgery. And I’m now deemed severely sight impaired.

“It’s all part of the anguish I’ve had over the years.”

Mr Sabet ended up with £100,000 of debt trying to pay the money back despite having repeatedly tried to tell the Post Office that he was not to blame.

A number of former sub-postmasters have had their conviction overturned at the Court of Appeal

He was one of 12 sub-postmasters to have their names cleared by three judges at the court in London.

He said he has been viewed as a criminal wrongly for close to 12 years.

“I couldn’t get house insurance, other insurance cost twice, three times as much as normal, I had creditors chasing me and threatening me,” he said.

“I don’t know how we are going to proceed from here, but as far as I’m concerned, I’d love to destroy the Post Office and the people who destroyed me.”

At the trial in 2009, Adrian Chaplin, prosecuting, said when auditors checked the accounts in March 2008, they found £26,927 missing from the post office in East Beach, Shoreham, and £23,821 missing at the post office in Mill Lane, Portslade.

Judge Charles Kemp sentenced Mr Sabet to one year in jail suspended for two years and was ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work in the community.

He was also made to pay £1,000 costs.

He told him: "It is a real tragedy that a man of your years, undoubted abilities and intelligence, should now stand convicted of offences of dishonesty. You have lost your good character in spectacular fashion.

"It is public money, and this was a grave breach of trust."

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