A public inquiry begins today (February 14th) examining how hundreds of Post Office sub-postmasters and mistresses were wrongly convicted in the Post Office IT scandal.
The Post Office’s rollout of the faulty Horizon IT system meant that more than 700 sub-postmasters were wrongly convicted of false accounting, fraud and theft. The sheer scale of the scandal makes it the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history.
Scores of those convicted have already succeeded in having their convictions overturned. But what exactly happened in the Post Office IT scandal, and what questions will the inquiry into it be asking?
What was the Post Office IT scandal?
From 2000 to 2014, more than 700 sub-postmasters and mistresses were prosecuted by the Post Office for false accounting, fraud and theft - based on faulty information.
The information on which the prosecutions were based were taken from Horizon, an IT system which had only recently been installed at the time.
Some of those convicted faced prison sentences, social ostracism and financial ruin for offences they did not commit, insisting all along that the Horizon system was flawed.
Campaigners succeeded in getting their cases reconsidered by the legal system after a 20-year campaign.
In December 2019, the Post Office reached a settlement over the Horizon scandal with 555 claimants. It agreed to pay a total of £58 million in damages, £12 million of which went to the claimants after paying their legal fees.
A High Court judge subsequently ruled that the "bugs, errors and defects" in the Horizon system meant there was a “material risk” that apparent financial shortfalls were actually caused by faults in the software.
However, a number of those caught up in the scandal have since died.
What was the Horizon system?
Horizon was an IT system, developed by Japanese firm Fujitsu, which was introduced by the Post Office in 1999 for use in accounting, stock-taking and transactions.
The system was plagued by glitches from the start, and many sub-postmasters complained that Horizon was wrongly reporting financial shortfalls.
In a desperate attempt to replenish funds which the system wrongly said were missing, some sub-postmasters resorted to using their own money - with some going as far as remortgaging their homes.
Thousands of sub-postmasters are believed to have lost substantial amounts of money in this way. The Post Office is now beginning to refund this money to those affected.
Why were sub-postmasters wrongly convicted?
Hundreds of Post Office sub-postmasters and mistresses were wrongly convicted of fraud, false accounting and theft because of inaccuracies in the Horizon accounting system.
It took a two-decade legal battle to get these cases reconsidered. By this point, many of those who had been affected had wrongly served time in prison, as well as losing homes, friendships and marriages as a result.
Others went from being respected and well-liked members of their local community to being shunned overnight, having been unfairly and unjustly stigmatised as thieves and fraudsters.
For some, the stress was so overwhelming that the experience resulted in their premature deaths, whether through stress-induced illness or, in some cases, suicide.
How many sub-postmasters were wrongly convicted?
In total, 736 Post Office sub-postmasters and mistresses were convicted of offences following financial discrepancies reported by the Horizon IT system.
So far, a total of 72 have succeeded in getting their convictions overturned, while many more continue to struggle to clear their names.
Harjinder Butoy, who ran a Post Office in the Nottinghamshire town of Sutton-in-Ashfield, is believed to have received the longest sentence arising from the scandal - three years and four months.
Some 39 convictions were overturned in a single Court of Appeal ruling in April 2021. The judge who heard the appeal ruled that the convictions as “an affront to the public conscience”, allowing those concerned to pursue civil action against the Post Office.
The Post Office is likely to have to make further substantial payouts to wrongly convicted sub-postmasters for malicious prosecution.
What will the inquiry examine?
The public inquiry into the Post Office IT scandal will examine a number of key questions, including whether the Post Office was aware of the faults in the Horizon system.
In addition, the inquiry will look at the role of Fujitsu - the company that developed Horizon - and what it knew about the system’s flaws while prosecutions were ongoing.
Evidence will also be presented on the prosecutions of sub-postmasters and mistresses, and the inquiry will consider whether the compensation they have received so far is adequate.
When will the Post Office IT scandal inquiry publish its findings?
The public inquiry into the Post Office IT scandal is expected to continue for the rest of this year. It isn’t yet known exactly when its findings will be released.
For its part, the Post Office has said that it is “sincerely sorry” for the distress caused by the scandal, and insists it is “in no doubt about the human cost” it has incurred.
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