Oldest Post Office scandal victim Betty Brown honoured with OBE

The oldest surviving victim of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal has been appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to justice after campaigning against wrongful prosecutions.

Betty Brown, 92, ran the Annfield Plain Post Office in County Durham with her late husband Oswall from 1985. But they were forced out in 2003 after spending more than £50,000 of their savings to cover non-existent shortfalls.

She recently received her long-awaited settlement from one of the government’s compensation schemes.

Mrs Brown told BBC Breakfast she accepted the recognition in the New Year Honours list on behalf of all the victims of the scandal.

“Every one of them should have an OBE,” she said.

“Every one of them for what they’ve [Post Office] put us through and what we have stood solid and faithful for. I did it for justice.”

The Horizon IT system was responsible for more than 900 sub-postmasters being wrongfully prosecuted because of it providing incorrect information. Thousands more, like Mrs Brown, were forced to make up for the alleged losses at their branches across the UK.

The scandal has been described as one of the widest miscarriages of justice in the UK.

Mrs Brown said she was “honoured and humbled” to be made an OBE, adding she had finally “been heard by the system”.

Mrs Brown is not the first Post Office campaigner to be recognised in the New Year Honours list. A year ago four former sub-postmasters turned campaigners were honoured for their services to justice, and Sir Alan Bates – who was featured in the ITV drama “Mr Bates vs The Post Office” – was knighted in 2024.

The 92-year-old was one of the original 555 victims who took part in the landmark group legal action led by Sir Alan against the Post Office.

Her branch had been one of the most successful in the region but eventually she had to sell it at a loss.

Talking about what happened, she previously said it “absolutely destroyed my whole life”.

Both Mrs Brown and Sir Alan were part of the Group Litigation Order compensation scheme, and those claimants were offered the option of taking a fixed sum of £75,000 or pursuing their own settlement.

After receiving her payout in November 2025, she told the BBC: “At last, after 26 years, they’ve recognised justice,” and added: “pity they took so long.”

A government spokesperson said: “We must never lose sight of the Horizon scandal’s human impact on postmasters and their families, which the Horizon inquiry has highlighted so well.

“Betty Brown has been a fierce advocate for postmasters and this government has now paid out over £1.3bn to more than 10,000 victims.

When the first report of the official inquiry into the scandal was published in July, the Post Office said it apologised “unreservedly” for the suffering “caused to postmasters and their loved ones”.