Submit Workplace acknowledges ECCO+ consumer’s requires assist three a long time in the past
The Submit Workplace ignored a subpostmaster’s requires assist when she skilled accounting shortfalls whereas utilizing its ECCO+ system.
The software program, which was utilized in Crown branches (bigger branches owned and run by the Submit Workplace) and a whole bunch of sub-Submit Workplaces (small branches owned and run by subpostmasters) within the Nineteen Nineties, had flaws that would have prompted unexplained losses that customers had been blamed for.
In a current assembly with former subpostmaster Janette Armour, as a part of its assessment of ECCO+, the Submit Workplace revealed it has copies of letters she despatched within the early Nineteen Nineties when she was struggling to stability her department accounts utilizing the software program. On the time, her department in Scotland was dropping a whole bunch of kilos each week.
Issues over ECCO+ had been raised by the Nationwide Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) in October 2024 on the again of revelations within the Submit Workplace Horizon scandal, in addition to rising tales associated to the Seize system and its flaws.
ECCO+ was utilized in Crown branches within the Nineteen Nineties, and there have been additionally a whole bunch of branches transformed to sub-Submit Workplaces, which used ECCO+ sooner or later, in response to the NFSP.
Throughout final week’s assembly with the Division for Enterprise and Commerce (DBT), the Submit Workplace revealed it had copies of Armour’s correspondence about ECCO+ from the Nineteen Nineties.
“I knew I wasn’t making a mistake. I knew there was one thing unsuitable,” she informed Pc Weekly.
Armour was a subpostmaster in Scotland. From 1977, she labored in Crown branches and was promoted to the Submit Workplace headquarters in Glasgow, earlier than shopping for a sub-Submit Workplace department close to the town along with her husband.
They had been later requested if they might be inquisitive about taking on a Crown department in East Kilbride, which they did in 1994. ECCO+ was used within the department, which had six counters.
She estimates that she and her husband personally lined at the least £16,000 value of shortfalls a 12 months, for two-and-a-half years.
The losses took their toll, and Armour and her husband had been finally suggested to promote their smaller Submit Workplace department. After dropping more cash, they needed to promote their Crown department as effectively. On the final day on the department, it was revealed to Armour that even Submit Workplace workers knew ECCO+ was problematic.
She stated the software program didn’t work correctly from the day it was put in.
NFSP CEO Calum Greenhow, who attended the assembly with Armour, stated there was a recognition that she had been harmed. “They really have proof that Janette was writing to them, telling them that it was an issue,” he stated.
A Submit Workplace spokesperson stated: “We’re in touch with the Division for Enterprise and Commerce about ECCO/ECCO+, and there may be nonetheless very restricted data, so it will be important that any points are raised to allow them to be correctly reviewed. We encourage anybody who believes they might have been affected by accounting issues linked to ECCO/ECCO+ to return ahead to the Division for Enterprise and Commerce, or, if they like, the NFSP.”
A authorities spokesperson stated: “We’re grateful to Mrs Armour for sharing her story and points when utilizing the ECCO+ system. We’ll proceed to work with the Submit Workplace and postmasters to grasp the broader implications of ECCO+ and encourage anybody who had comparable points to return ahead.”
Former Submit Workplace employee and campaigner for subpostmasters Rupert Lloyd Thomas stated: “Ultimately, each the Submit Workplace and DBT are going to have to just accept that ECCO+ was faulty.
Lloyd Thomas, together with Armour and Greenhow, will meet the DBT and the Submit Workplace to debate ECCO+ additional.
He informed Pc Weekly: “ECCO+ was chronically unreliable, it was an affordable and nasty system. I had lots to do with work making an attempt to get that system fastened,” stated Lloyd Thomas, who labored on the Submit Workplace for 27 years.
However there are important gaps within the proof to this point, as the majority of customers – Crown department workers between 1992 and 1999 – usually are not a part of the NFSP, which has been in search of data.
