The Post Office is suspected of wrongly prosecuting dozens more operators who took part in a pilot scheme of the faulty Horizon system, the Guardian has been told.
Amid growing anger over the treatment of postmasters whose lives have been ruined in the scandal, Whitehall sources have confirmed that a precursor scheme was rolled out in 1995 and 1996 to hundreds of branches in north-east England.
After taking part in the pilot, at least two branch managers were prosecuted despite protesting that there was a glitch in the system, a senior Labour MP has claimed.
The development comes after a national outcry over the treatment of post office operators between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Fujitsu software made it appear as though money was missing from their outlets.
This week, an ITV drama has highlighted the scandal and heightened demands for the government to take action.
Hundreds were jailed or left bankrupt and at least four people took their own lives. Most victims have not received compensation.
Conservative MPs are expected to return to parliament this week demanding action.
David Davis, the former cabinet minister, said the government is facing a “tidal wave” of public support for the victims in the wake of the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
Kevan Jones, the Labour MP who is a member of the Horizon compensation advisory board, said he was told by Post Office managers that the Horizon pilot scheme was rolled out to 300 branches in 1995.
“I have met one of the post office managers who was pursued by the Post Office after taking part in the pilot and then accused of mishandling money. There were protests that the system was faulty and the protests were ignored. They were obviously not a crook and should never have been prosecuted,” said Jones.
Jones said he believed there may be dozens more victims of the pilot scheme and said the Post Office should have disclosed the existence of the pilot years ago. “Amid the controversy and scandal over the Horizon system, no one from the Post Office thought to mention that they had this pilot scheme which also resulted in prosecutions.
“The question we have to ask is how many more have been prosecuted and how many more lives have been ruined. It’s what we have come to expect from the Post Office – they hide the truth and the sub postmasters take the blame.”
Jones told the Commons in December he had met a former Post Office manager who was protesting their innocence after being prosecuted and convicted under the Horizon pilot scheme.
“When all the publicity came out about Horizon, why did no one come forward and say: ‘By the way, do you realise we had another system on the go at the beginning and we prosecuted people under that system?’,” he told MPs.
Kevin Hollinrake, the trade minister, replied: “I understand that was a pilot scheme for Horizon so we are confident that our current compensation schemes can deliver outcomes and compensation for the individuals he refers to.”
A Post Office spokesperson did not respond to questions asking how many people were prosecuted under the pilot scheme and why prosecutions under the pilot were not disclosed until December.
“Kevan Jones MP raised this matter on the floor of the House of Commons on 19 December and the current postal affairs minister responded to his questions regarding Horizon installations in the north-east of England. We regularly meet with the Horizon Advisory Board which Mr Jones sits on and is supported by the Department for Business and Industrial Trade and will answer any queries he has as best as we are able to,” a spokesperson said.
Earlier on Sunday, the prime minister raised the possibility that operators whose lives have been ruined by the Horizon scandal could be exonerated under plans being considered by the government.
Asked whether the justice secretary was looking at plans to exonerate the victims or take away the Post Office’s ability to prosecute, Rishi Sunak said: “The justice secretary is looking at the things that you’ve described. It wouldn’t be right to pre-empt that process, obviously there’s legal complexity in all of those things, but he is looking at exactly those areas.”
In an appearance on BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, he added: “Everyone has been shocked by watching what they have done over the past few days and beyond and it is an appalling miscarriage of justice.”
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 wrongly prosecuted branch owner-operators.
Fifty new potential victims have contacted lawyers this week, including five who wish to appeal against their convictions.
Davis, the former cabinet minister, called for a series of measures to speed up justice for the post office operators.
He called for the government to fast-track the quashing of convictions using the key fact that operators from Fujitsu had access to post office operator’s terminals, raising questions over the safety of every conviction.
“The fact that they could access each computer means that each conviction is unsafe,” he said.
He urged the government to intervene to stop the Post Office from using “very expensive lawyers” to block and question compensation packages for victims.
“These very expensive lawyers are protecting the shareholders but there’s only one shareholder and that is the government. So we could make a decision to pull back from challenging obvious compensation claims.
“If the Post Office goes bankrupt, and it has to be refinanced by the government, so be it,” he told the Guardian.
The Metropolitan police has been looking into potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice in relation to investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Post Office.
Two people have been interviewed under caution but nobody has been arrested since the investigation was launched in January 2020.
