This story is mad, if I recall correctly they knew the software was faulty but covered it up and instead ruined the lives of all these employees.
Individuals covered it up. They should serve a lot of time for what they did to a lot of people’s lives. Many innocent people were accused convicted and livelihoods destroyed. Labour really need to look at this once in power. It is a massive disgrace.
Labour was in power for 11 of the 14 years the prosecutions were happening. They ceased in 2013 because one of the Post Office’s lawyers advised that their Fujitsu witness had been committing perjury and couldn’t be used again. Instead of righting the wrongs they just quietly stopped prosecuting.
There’s an ongoing inquiry, which started in 2021. It’s already given an interim report on compensation.
I first heard this as an example of how buggy software can ruin people’s lives, but I feel that there’s much more to it than purely technical issues.
How could the court decide that Horizon was correct and the accused were wrong? Basically, the company just says trust me bro and that’s all it takes. Really makes you think on what base the whole justice system is working.
Why only now? This has been common knowledge for years
They started investigating in early 2020, after Bates vs POL succeeded.
Why no charges have yet been brought, I do not know. But there is an ongoing inquiry (with at least one witness asking for immunity from prosecution). They may need to wait for that to conclude, given the thousands of documents it is wringing out of the Post Office (which is still trying to avoid disclosures).
There’s a fair few judges and lawyers who need to be in the firing line also. Most of these cases should never have been brought, the evidence was not there and all concerned should have known it. And very often did know it. But investigators got bonuses based on recovered monies, so they’d just make a shaky charge of theft and then terrify defendants into pleading to lesser charges and the legal system let them.
How the turn tables
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Post Office is under criminal investigation over “potential fraud offences” committed during the Horizon scandal, the Metropolitan police have confirmed for the first time.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 post office branch managers were wrongly handed criminal convictions after faulty Horizon accounting software made it appear as though money was missing from their outlets.
Under the terms of their contracts, operators were liable for the financial losses and the Post Office demanded they repay the money or face closure, prosecution or a civil claim.
Operators claimed that tens of millions of pounds wrongly clawed back went into Post Office profits.
Earlier this week, ITV began broadcasting Mr Bates vs the Post Office, a four-part drama charting the scandal and the fight for justice by branch owner-operators wrongly prosecuted.
In a statement issued on Friday, it said it “might be able to help if your appeal was unsuccessful, or if you pleaded guilty in a magistrates’ court, or if you are a close relative of a former sub-postmaster who has died”.
The original article contains 382 words, the summary contains 173 words. Saved 55%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
