Nick Wallis

The Post Office scandal is probably Britain’s biggest ever miscarriage of justice. Hundreds of postmasters were jailed or financially ruined after a computer system said money was missing from their branches. Finally the Post Office admitted that its Horizon computer system can make mistakes. There evidence of a cover-up at the Post Office.

The story has been investigated since 2010 by freelance journalist Nick Wallis. On his website https://www.postofficetrial.com/ he summarises the situation as we copy below.

The issue was covered by a BBC Panorama TV programme on 8 June and in The Great Post Office Trial on BBC Radio 4. It was debated this week in both houses of Parliament.

We cover this story on this website because Peace and Reconciliation can only come once Justice has been served, and this scandal shows that a great national institution we all trust can fail to deliver justice and destroy the peace of their own loyal employees.

Over many years the people who run local post office branches (Subpostmasters) have been held legally responsible for the accounts presented to them by the Post Office’s branch IT system, Horizon.

However, Subpostmasters are not in control of that system. It is operated by the Post Office.

Subpostmasters are unable to dispute the accounts presented to them and are held contractually liable by the Post Office for any discrepancies. Until a High Court judgment in March 2019, if Horizon says you should have £80,000 worth of cash and stock in your branch and you only have £50,000, the Post Office considered you owed them £30,000.

The Post Office is not contractually obliged to investigate the cause of a Horizon discrepancy. Many Subpostmasters are certain computer glitches or other uninvestigated causes outside their control are behind discrepancies appearing in their accounts.

Postmasters who refuse to sign off their accounts are told they are not allowed to move from one branch trading period to the next. They should either agree to make any discrepancies good, or shut their branches, putting them in breach of contract.

In the past, Subpostmasters who refused to make good discrepancies were sacked, losing everything they’d invested in their branches.

Potential miscarriages of justice

Some Subpostmasters, mystified by continual or large scale losses and scared of being sacked and losing their businesses, signed off accounts they knew were not an accurate reflection of their stock and cash. They say they did this to avoid being held liable for discrepancies which were out of their control, which they could not afford to make good, and to keep trading. The Post Office called this false accounting.

Subpostmasters unwilling or unable to make good large discrepancies were sometimes prosecuted (by the Post Office’s in-house prosecution team) for theft, false accounting and/or fraud. This was done on IT evidence alone, without proof of criminal intent. Despite this, some Subpostmasters were successfully persuaded by their own solicitors to plead guilty to false accounting, on being told the Post Office would drop theft charges.

Once the Post Office had a criminal conviction, it would attempt to secure a Proceeds of Crime Act Order against convicted Subpostmasters, allowing it to seize their assets and bankrupt them.

The upshot is what has been described as “likely… one of the most widespread miscarriages in the UK this century” and “a national scandal”. The Criminal Cases Review Commission is investigating 32 Post Office prosecutions. There is also an ongoing High Court class action which the 550+ claimant Subpostmasters are (so far) winning.