Robert Daily was chief investigator when more than 100 sub-postmasters were prosecuted for embezzlement with victims now calling for his bonus pay to be returned
The Sunday Mail is reporting that the chief investigator for the Post Office in Scotland and the man behind a series of wrongful convictions under the Horizon IT scandal has refused to apologise to the people whose lives he ruined.
Robert Daily was chief investigator when more than 100 sub-postmasters were prosecuted for embezzlement. Some victims have called on Daily – still employed by the Post Office – to return their money.
Gemma McGowan, daughter of late Edinburgh subpostmistress Fiona McGowan, said: “This man definitely contributed to the pain and devastation caused to all those charged or convicted. It makes me so angry to now learn they were given bonuses for all the work they were doing to accuse innocent people of stealing. That was obviously an incentive.”
Daily gave evidence last month at the Post Office inquiry on two cases of wrongful conviction – North Uist sub postmaster William Quarm and Newcastle sub-postmaster Peter Holmes. He said he was “just doing my job” and admitted to having exceeded targets for recovering “stolen” cash.
He said his bonuses could “technically” be linked to how much cash he recovered but insisted they were paid regardless. But fellow investigator Gary Thomas said there were “bonus -objectives” based on -prosecutions and recovery of funds.
Fiona was wrongly accused of stealing £30,000 and false accounting in 2004 – the year Daily became investigations manager for Scotland. She died in 2009. Her case was dropped but Fiona was never told and died alone in a homeless hostel believing she faced jail.