Former Put up Workplace authorized boss received’t escape police attain

The controversial former Put up Workplace common counsel who averted questioning at statutory Put up Workplace scandal public inquiry is not going to escape police probe. 

Based on one supply, throughout a gathering updating victims on the Operation Olympos police investigation into the scandal, police representatives have been requested whether or not people overseas will be questioned. Attendees on the replace assembly have been informed they might and, unprompted, one of many investigation crew named former authorized chief Jane MacLeod for example.

MacLeod headed the Put up Workplace’s authorized division from 2015 to 2019, throughout a interval when the organisation was making an attempt to quell the rising scandal. Perjury and perverting the course of justice are two of the offences being investigated by Operation Olympos, which is nationwide, however led by the Metropolitan Police.

MacLeod refused to face the Put up Workplace scandal public inquiry and, as a non-UK citizen dwelling in Australia, the inquiry didn’t have the facility to compel her to attend, however the police might journey to Australia to query her.

The interval MacLeod headed up the Put up Workplace authorized division included the Excessive Courtroom battle with subpostmasters, which MacLeod recurrently attended. The Put up Workplace spent greater than £100m in taxpayers’ cash making an attempt to stop subpostmasters from proving the defective Horizon system was responsible for unexplained account shortfalls.

In 2015, MacLeod wrote a threatening letter to Laptop Weekly because it was investigating and reporting on the scandal.

One former subpostmaster stated: “For somebody who took such a eager curiosity within the trials to not present up for the inquiry speaks volumes as a result of she might have given them a number of helpful data.”

In a written assertion in Might 2024, inquiry chair Wyn Williams stated the general public inquiry “thought-about it necessary to listen to oral proof from Ms MacLeod”, including: “Additional, it supplied to fulfill Ms MacLeod’s journey and lodging bills. Nevertheless, Ms MacLeod has made it clear that she is not going to co-operate with the inquiry by offering oral proof, whether or not by attending the inquiry in individual or by giving proof remotely by way of stay video hyperlink.”

As she is a non-British nationwide dwelling exterior the UK, Williams stated he had “no ample technique of compelling MacLeod to attend pursuant to the Inquiries Act 2005”. He added that he had important proof related to the previous authorized boss. “I shall be capable of evaluate what Ms MacLeod says in her witness assertion alongside the in depth contemporaneous documentation I’ve obtained.”

The replace additionally revealed that Operation Olympos at present has eight suspects and 53 individuals of curiosity. Police have stated the investigation is concentrated on the offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice, however fees of company manslaughter are additionally being thought-about.

There have additionally been considerations about funding, with mission leaders emphasising the necessity for extra of it. As revealed by Laptop Weekly in August, the investigation into the Put up Workplace Horizon scandal was then anticipated to value taxpayers greater than £50m in complete.

Commenting on the Operation Olympos replace, Sir Alan Bates, the previous subpostmaster who led the struggle for justice towards the Put up Workplace, stated: “It was attention-grabbing to listen to first-hand how the momentum of the investigation was constructing with the huge quantities of information they now have. However it should take time and I feel persons are clearer about that.”

The Put up Workplace scandal was first uncovered by Laptop Weekly in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered resulting from Horizon accounting software program, which led to probably the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British historical past (see under timeline of Laptop Weekly articles in regards to the scandal since 2009).