A FORMER Post Office investigator who claimed he still believed a  subpostmaster is guilty despite a court clearing him of theft came close to tears as he accused the Post Office of “deceiving” him and a “lot more people.”

Raymond Grant, who was legally forced to appear at the Horizon IT inquiry today, told the inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams that he still considered William Quarm to be guilty of stealing money from his Post Office branch in North Uist, Scotland.

Quarm, who died aged 69 two years after being convicted of embezzlement in 2010 and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work, was posthumously cleared in the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh last year.

Today Mr Grant, who had interviewed Quarm, complained that he was not being paid for his time appearing before the hearing, saying he only submitted a two-page witness statement because he was dog-walking and looking after homeless residents in a Christian shelter.

At the end of his evidence, Mr Grant appeared to become emotional as he said for his “part” in the scandal, he was “humbly sorry.”

He said his former employer had been “less than open and honest with information that should have been shared,” adding: “They deceived me and they deceived an awful lot more people.”

More than 700 branch managers were prosecuted by the Post Office after Fujitsu’s faulty accounting software, Horizon, made it look as though money was missing from their shops.

The saga prompted an outcry across the country after it was dramatised in the ITV series Mr Bates vs The Post Office earlier this month.

Hundreds of subpostmasters eligible for £600,000 payouts are still awaiting compensation.