Fujitsu boss has been a Publish Workplace scandal bystander for over a decade
In a minimum of 2013, Fujitsu’s present European boss, Paul Patterson, was a part of a senior group of executives on the IT provider monitoring and downplaying press protection of challenges towards the Horizon system.
Publish Workplace scandal sufferer and campaigner Lee Castleton has referred to as on Patterson, who faces MPs in a choose committee assembly at the moment, to cease being a “bystander” and be a “chief”. One other sufferer of the scandal, Jo Hamilton, mentioned she expects the identical “bullshit” from the likes of Patterson, as in earlier hearings.
Patterson has kind watching on and taking no motion. An inner electronic mail from 2013, despatched to him, now printed by the Publish Workplace scandal public inquiry, reveals Fujitsu’s ardent assist of the Publish Workplace’s place that Horizon was strong. It highlights the provider’s leaders’ unwillingness to talk out or delve deeper to finish what turned the widest miscarriage of justice in UK historical past.
Patterson was included in an electronic mail from 2013, the place a member of the group described a Pc Weekly headline, which said that an investigation into Horizon errors revealed considerations, as “alarmist”.
The present European boss, in addition to the then UK CEO, Duncan Tait, obtained the e-mail immediately. Patterson joined Fujitsu in early 2010 in a senior gross sales position. He turned European boss in 2019.
The e-mail despatched by Simon Carter, on the time a senior gross sales and advertising and marketing government at Fujitsu, alerted senior executives to press protection in regards to the issues with Horizon.
The e-mail performed down considerations and is an early instance of the interior tradition at Fujitsu, which meant the Publish Workplace scandal was capable of unfold unchallenged. The correspondence, which was launched by the general public inquiry, learn: “People. You could have already got seen this, however there are (a minimum of) two tales on the wires in regards to the Publish Workplace story. In each instances the headline is much extra alarmist than the story itself.”
The Pc Weekly headline, Publish Workplace Horizon system investigation reveals considerations, was for an article reporting an investigation into Horizon which revealed areas of concern.
Based on a supply, the perspective to minimize the scandal stays at the moment, as evidenced by feedback made by just lately departed gross sales boss Ron Abraham, when discussing the preliminary report of the Publish Workplace scandal public inquiry, which was revealed by Pc Weekly. He was pressured to apologise after describing the findings of the primary Publish Workplace public inquiry as “not that unhealthy”, regardless of it linking the scandal to 13 suicides.
Getaway driver
Fujitsu has sat within the background for over 20 years because the Publish Workplace wrecked the lives of subpostmasters who had issues with the software program they had been pressured to make use of. It solely got here ahead when the Publish Workplace wanted assist on its wrongful prosecutions of subpostmasters, which had been based mostly on unexplained account shortfalls showing on Horizon.
Within the 2013 Fujitsu electronic mail despatched to Patterson, Carter wrote: “As you realize from a media perspective, now we have agreed with the shopper that we’ll not touch upon this story until given permission to by them. However at this stage based mostly on these articles, I don’t assume we wish to or must.”
Fujitsu declined to touch upon the e-mail when contacted by Pc Weekly.
Castleton, a former subpostmaster who was made bankrupt after being blamed for unexplained shortfalls, believes Patterson continues to fail in his duties to scandal victims. “Patterson has been able now for for much longer than some other head,” he mentioned. “The Publish Workplace CEO is new to the position, as is the minister. Patterson must be a pacesetter, not a bystander. It’s the similar denial playbook. They denied faults, they denied distant entry, they denied wrongdoing and so they deny the harm they’ve performed to innocents.
“Taking part in the ‘I received’t admit something’ card ‘till I’ve no selection’ is abhorrent and never the sincere manner ahead. It’s integrity and honesty that’s wanted, not denial and obstruction.”
Hamilton, who was wrongly convicted of false accounting, shouldn’t be anticipating a lot from the choose committee assembly at the moment. “Nothing adjustments and nothing will,” she mentioned. “None of them care, together with Whitehall. We’re naive if we predict we are able to disgrace them into it.
“I used to be on the first choose committee in 2015, and it’s the identical bullshit solutions and nothing adjustments.”
Carter’s electronic mail
Pc Weekly contacted Carter, the e-mail’s writer, who had beforehand labored on the Publish Workplace. He didn’t recall writing the e-mail, however he accepted it reads like an electronic mail he would have written. “I used to be by no means made conscious of something that prompt a scarcity of robustness within the Horizon system … however that was not my position within the firm – my position was to easily spotlight media protection because it got here to mild – on any matter,” mentioned Carter.
He informed Pc Weekly: “My selection of phrases must be seen in context. What I mentioned within the electronic mail was that ‘the headline is extra alarmist than the article’, by which I meant that anybody glancing on the headline would infer one thing extra regarding than they might get from studying the entire article that was way more factual in nature.
“By no means was I looking for to make any private remark in regards to the subject in query – merely that the headline was robust, however the content material was extra in step with what has been reported elsewhere,” he added. “It was a factual assertion by me…”
By this time, Seema Misra, Janet Skinner and plenty of others had served jail sentences after wrongful convictions based mostly on flawed Horizon proof, and Sir Alan Bates and campaigning former subpostmasters had established the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance.
Carter mentioned: “With hindsight, ‘alarming’ could have been a greater phrase to have used than ‘alarmist’ [to describe headline]. As you’ll be able to see, the e-mail seems to have been written at 10pm at night time, so my selection of vocabulary could not have been excellent … for the avoidance of doubt, I’ve adopted the media protection like most UK residents and am appalled by what’s being reported as occurred on the time. It’s surprising and my coronary heart goes out to each particular person affected by it.”
The Publish Workplace scandal was first uncovered by Pc Weekly in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered because of the accounting software program (see timeline of Pc Weekly articles in regards to the scandal under).
