A former sub postmaster has joined a class action against the Post Office claiming a faulty IT system led to accounting shortfalls.

Scott Darlington, from Bollington, was convicted of false accounting in 2010 when the system at his sub-post office suggested £45,000 was missing.

The father-of-one says that he lost his business, was saddled with massive debt and was unable to get a new job for three years.

Now the 54-year-old is one of more than 1,000 sub postmasters to join legal action against the Post Office.

Scott, of Palmerston Street, said: “It has been very distressing. I was given a criminal record and was unable to get a job. I nearly lost my house and had to do everything in my power to avoid bankruptcy.

“I suffered from depression. It was horrific. It was a real struggle. It has been nothing short of a nightmare for nine years.”

Scott, who now works as an aircraft production technician, claims that he has spent the last seven years battling to rebuild his life and clear his name.

He added: “There have been various attempts to right this. Now there are more a 1,000 people in this civil case. The tide has turned. I just want to clear my name and get back some of money I lost - which is hundreds of thousands of pounds - and which is debt I am still paying off.”

Alan Bates, from the campaign group Justice for Sub Postmasters Alliance, hoped the case would bring the Post Office to account.

He said: “Sub postmasters have brought the claim to force Post Office Ltd to accept responsibility for the flaws in its Horizon operating system, for its refusal properly to investigate accounting shortfalls and for its shoddy and careless treatment of postmasters who have lost their liberty, livelihood or savings because Post Office Ltd wrongly accused many of them of theft or fraud.

“As well as a court finding of responsibility, the claimant group will be seeking appropriate financial compensation in respect of loss and damage suffered.”

A spokesman for the Post Office said: “We welcome the Group Litigation Order as offering the best opportunity for the matters in dispute to be heard and resolved but will not otherwise comment on litigation whilst it is ongoing.

“We continue to have confidence in the robustness of the Horizon system which has around 78,000 users across 11,600 branches nationwide to process six million transactions a day.”

Fujitsu, which created the computer program Horizon, declined to comment.