Some 2,400 sub-postmasters were hounded out of their jobs, some prosecuted for fraud or false accounting, some pleaded guilty to avoid prison, some bankrupted, some committed suicide. Families and lives were ruined between 2000 and 2014. The accounting discrepancies for which they were blamed arose in the Horizon IT system, manufactured by Fujitsu. It appears that faults were known about, not just within Fujitsu, but also within the Post Office which persecuted the sub-postmasters. In the persecutions, the Post Office consciously withheld disclosure of relevant evidence: the Court of Appeal in 2021 in overturning 39 convictions described the Post Office’s conduct as “an egregious affront to the conscience of the Court”. While some sub-postmasters have accepted some compensation, most have had nothing. At the time the Post Office was a public service, and so the cost of compensation for the behaviours of those executives and Fujitsu falls on the taxpayer.
Recently the Government announced an offer of £600,000 per claimant to those who were wrongfully convicted, and who are claiming through the legal process. Of course, that does not cover hundreds of others. In fact, a public inquiry continues but is not due to complete until some time in 2024. No senior Post Office executive has been held to account. Fujitsu for now is getting off the hook but the inquiry will hopefully find them out. Unless Fujitsu offer substantial compensation, sub-postmasters will have to go to court. How can they fund that? A basic problem has been that throughout the process of persecution, an individual sub-postmaster has had little chance against a resistant and it seem immoral Post Office and Post Office executives.
This is surely one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in recent times. Justice delayed is justice denied, and never more so than in this case. It has taken so long, and still rolls on unresolved, that the outcome of this scandal will mean that so many wronged and ruined lives will never get compensated at all or have the almost insulting pleasure of an apology. If the taxpayer is to pay out large sums, the Government should claim a large proportion back from Fujitsu.
See Sherbhert article The Post Office Criminal Scandal 7 May 2021.
1 comment
This is indeed a disgrace, so why has one of the many ‘No Win-No Fee’ law firms not jumped on the case, instead of chasing diesel fumes. The British Taxpayer, none of whom are responsible for the major errors of the Government Postal Service and should not have to pick up the tab. If fault (blame) can be laid at the door of Fujitsu, the government must pursue the claim.