The Post Office Scandal.

The British Post Office scandal, also called the Horizon IT scandal, involved Post Office Limited pursuing thousands of innocent subpostmasters for shortfalls in their accounts, which had in fact been caused by faults in Horizon, accounting software developed and maintained by Fujitsu. Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 subpostmasters were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting based on faulty Horizon data, with about 700 of these prosecutions carried out by the Post Office. Other subpostmasters were prosecuted but not convicted, forced to cover Horizon shortfalls with their own money, or had their contracts terminated. The court cases, criminal convictions, imprisonments, loss of livelihoods and homes, debts, and bankruptcies took a heavy toll on the victims and their families, leading to stress, illness, family breakdown, and at least four suicides. In 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the scandal as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history.

This is the biggest injustice in British History, how on earth was it allowed to happen in a civilised country, if my Partner was imprisoned like these Sub-Postmasters I would of lobbied my MP or MS visited my local Citizens Advice Bureau obviously their did do go down these routes and never got anywhere, the sad thing about all this was it took a television programme to get everyone to sit up and take notice.

Shame on all these people like Members of Parliament and Citizen Advice Bureau personnel who never helped or got this sorted they are all as much to blame as Senior Post Office Officials I wish we could as a nation make sure any similar injustice never happens again.

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Matt85 · 36-40, M

I'm confounded that in the time this was going noone ever thought "Why is everyone stealing? This is strange." Or atleast it took very long for them to think that.

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Justme264 · 70-79, M

@senghenydd one of the POL's legal team can't be found and another is refusing to appear at the enquiry...lives in NZ I understand. Such a disgrace

senghenydd · M

@Justme264 Obviously they can be brought to the inquiry I don't think there'll be a stone left unturned, New Zealand isn't far enough away now.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@Matt85 This is a country in which millions of people choose to believe that "illegal immigrants" are given favourable treatment in the allocation of housing and jobs, or that homelessness/destitution is a "lifestyle choice". Those in positions of leadership make mistakes, often not honest ones, but a wider culture of irrational thought and indifference to the plight of those around us (until that plight is dramatised into a TV series) does not help.

Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M

If you've been following the inquiry you'll have seen Paula Vennells evidence and behaviour over the past week and probably concluded that she had no interest in her own personel only in the profit and loss margins of the company she was in charge of.

The interesting part of the inquiry happens now as ministers and managers and those with responsibility in government over the last thirty plus years are supposed to be compelled to attend and give evidence under oath.

One of the reasons Rishi Sunak's suicidal speech last week was interesting is because he personally basically verbally signalled all those in or connected with this issue in government or civil service to run !
Warning that now was the time to submit your resignation; grab your passport and head to places with no deportation agreement.

And then you have the Chairman of the committee.
Quite why he's spent so long collecting the same information from dozens of people in the same position all saying the same thing rather than pushing the inquiry onward to conclusion leads some to suspect that's EXACTLY what he was asked to do !

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Adeptlinguist · M

@Picklebobble2 Ian Hislop was very good on HIGNFY this week

Sazzio · 36-40, M

@Picklebobble2 Yes Paula showed no interest whereas the current CEO of Fujitsu himself showed concern and seemed to answer honestly.

senghenydd · M

@Picklebobble2 I've seen Paula Vennells a few times breaking down whilst she was questioned by KCs she had no creditable defence so she cried, sorry I feel she should go to jail.

I put myself in the position of a Sub-Postmaster that was being accused of fraud what would I have done I would of seen my Member of Parliament and asked him to put a question to the Prime Minister, surely some of the families would of approached their MPs yet there wasn't any such questions that I know of, then there's the Welsh Parliament, questions to the First Minister all these people who were approached by families affected by prosecution or imprisonment should also be brought to justice they are guilty of doing nothing. It took a television programme to get things moving.

I really have a problem understanding how this injustice simply was swept under the mat for so long.

SW-User

Sadly, senior management teams like those of the Post Office are everywhere.

senghenydd · M

@SW-User This should never have happened, I sympathize with all those victims and yes very true there are senior management like those from the Post Office everywhere.

Reading between the lines families of the imprisoned Sub-Postmasters would of naturally contacted their MPS and local Citizen Advice Bureau's and let's not forget Solicitors who obviously failed them.

Justme264 · 70-79, M

Shame on the NFSP too

senghenydd · M

@Justme264 I have to be honest I just looked up NFSP and found out it's their Union who are/were supposed to represent Sub-Postmasters, with the number of their members prosecuted and imprisoned they were simply useless.

I found myself in deep trouble a few years ago and needed a strong union to help me and my fellow workers/colleagues out, the Unions were there to help us and our case was taken to the Houses of Parliament (I lobbied my MP) and then to the European Court - WE WON.

Justme264 · 70-79, M

@senghenydd well good for you and your union!

That is indeed the kind of support the sub postmasters deserved.

senghenydd · M

@Justme264 It certainly was I never thought we would win however we did.

Sazzio · 36-40, M

I sort of followed the news but still not sure what went wrong?

Was it that Fujitsu's data reported the Sub Postmasters are criminals?

senghenydd · M

@Sazzio Nearly 1,000 Sub-Postmasters were prosecuted, according to the BBC because of incorrect information from a computer called Horizon.

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