After greater than 20 years, what’s now known as the Put up Workplace Horizon scandal has grow to be headline information. Pc Weekly has performed an essential half in exposing what has been described because the widest miscarriage of justice in UK historical past.
In 1999, the Put up Workplace’s single shareholder, the UK authorities, started automating accounting processes at about 14,000 Put up Workplace branches. This noticed the introduction of a centralised pc system from provider Fujitsu, which all branches had been related to. This method changed conventional paper-based accounting practices.
However issues ensued, and there was a sudden enhance within the variety of subpostmasters struggling unexplained accounting shortfalls. Somewhat than examine the issues and repair them, the Put up Workplace blamed the department operators, a lot of whom it prosecuted for monetary crimes, with many extra made bankrupt and sacked.
What’s the Horizon system?
Horizon is software program that was initially developed by UK software program firm ICL, which was acquired by Japanese IT big Fujitsu in 1998. The system has an digital level of sale service (EPOSS) that permits subpostmasters and department employees to key in gross sales on a touchscreen, with the accounts being automated within the background. On the time of its roll-out in 1999/2000, it was the largest non-military IT undertaking in Europe.
What issues had been brought on by the system?
Nearly instantly after the set up of Horizon at Put up Workplace branches, there was a rise within the variety of subpostmasters experiencing accounting shortfalls that they may not clarify. Many had by no means beforehand skilled such shortfalls. Below the paper-based system, they may monitor again and discover the trigger. However not anymore.
Pc Weekly cowl from Might 2009 when it first reported on the issues subpostmasters had been having with the Horizon IT system
And whereas the know-how had modified, the contract between the Put up Workplace and subpostmasters, who owned their very own companies however had been brokers for the Put up Workplace, remained the identical. It acknowledged that any accounting shortfalls had been the duty of the subpostmasters except they may show in any other case. However with out the chain of proof created by paper-based accounting strategies, proving the losses weren’t their fault was close to not possible for a lot of.
Who was affected?
Subpostmasters have a contract with the Put up Workplace to run branches, however they aren’t workers of the Put up Workplace. They normally have a retail enterprise related to the Put up Workplace, the thought being that the retail operation will achieve extra prospects by the Put up Workplace drawing individuals in. There are additionally Crown branches, that are owned by the Put up Workplace. These bigger operations have department managers in place.
How had been subpostmasters affected?
For 15 years after the roll-out of Horizon, the Put up Workplace – which has non-public investigation and prosecution powers without having for police involvement – prosecuted greater than 700 subpostmasters for crimes comparable to theft and false accounting. Tons of of subpostmasters had been despatched to jail and plenty of extra obtained punishments comparable to being pressured to do neighborhood service and having to put on digital tags. They lived their lives with legal data.
Tons of had been made bankrupt, dropping their livelihood, and plenty of struggled after being pressured to pay the Put up Workplace to cowl shortfalls that didn’t exist exterior the Horizon system. The lives of the victims and their households had been severely impacted, with a number of suicides linked to the scandal and plenty of instances of sickness brought on by stress.
How did the Put up Workplace preserve a lid on this for therefore lengthy?
The Put up Workplace was decided to maintain a lid on the Horizon issues. To do that, it instructed employees in its name centre, which was the primary contact level for subpostmasters having issues, to inform callers they had been the one ones experiencing issues.
It went additional than this by utilizing its authorized groups and deep pockets to defend itself towards accusations, in courtroom if essential. It bragged about stopping subpostmasters from “leaping on the Horizon bashing bandwagon” when it silenced them. It additionally lied to journalists, politicians and anyone else who questioned the robustness of the Horizon system.
How the Put up Workplace used concern to discourage subpostmasters from difficult Horizon
The Put up Workplace used legal and civil authorized motion to close subpostmasters up. If subpostmasters continued to complain and make noise in regards to the system, it will discover methods to cease them as a result of it didn’t need the broader community of department operators to seek out out.
For instance, if a subpostmaster being blamed for an unexplained shortfall sought skilled IT recommendation, the Put up Workplace would typically again down. In 2003, when the Put up Workplace was suing a subpostmaster who was blaming Horizon for shortfalls at her department in Lancashire, a decide ordered it to nominate an skilled IT witness. When the skilled revealed issues with Horizon, the Put up Workplace paid off the subpostmaster and compelled her to signal a non-disclosure settlement.
At across the similar time, the Put up Workplace took Lee Castleton, a subpostmaster in Bridlington, to courtroom over an unexplained shortfall of £35,000. Castleton, who was one of many first seven victims interviewed by Pc Weekly, refused to pay the cash, citing pc issues as the reason for the shortfall. The Put up Workplace spent over £300,000 crushing Castleton in courtroom. It bankrupted him and devastated his and his household’s life.
The Put up Workplace additionally despatched individuals to jail to make an instance of them. Former subpostmaster Seema Misra was prosecuted and despatched to jail primarily based on proof from the Horizon system. After she was convicted, former Put up Workplace head of legal regulation Jarnail Singh wrote a celebratory e mail to colleagues, claiming this consequence would cease others from “leaping on the Horizon bashing bandwagon”.
What was Pc Weekly’s function in exposing the scandal?
Pc Weekly broke the primary story that uncovered the issues being skilled by subpostmasters.
The letter Alan Bates wrote to Pc Weekly in 2004
In 2004, Alan Bates, a subpostmaster in north Wales, contacted Pc Weekly about the truth that he was getting unexplained shortfalls, which he was satisfied had been brought on by Horizon errors.
Nothing was written, however in 2008, Lee Castleton additionally contacted Pc Weekly telling an identical story. This was sufficient to spark a wider investigation.
A 12 months later, Pc Weekly advised the story of seven subpostmasters who had been experiencing unexplained losses. This stimulated Bates’ battle towards the Put up Workplace, which had already been occurring for practically 10 years. The article revealed to subpostmasters who had been having Horizon issues that they weren’t alone and that the Put up Workplace was mendacity to them.
Pc Weekly continues to research and report on the story to today.
In Might 2009, Pc Weekly revealed a narrative about seven subpostmasters who had been experiencing unexplained losses, revealing to others that they weren’t alone and that the Put up Workplace was mendacity to them
Who’s Alan Bates?
In 1998, Alan Bates and his companion Suzanne Sercombe purchased a Put up Workplace in Craig-y-Don, north Wales. It was a plan to present them each time to spend on issues exterior work – in Bates’ case, this was strolling within the hills; for Sercombe, arts and crafts – whereas nonetheless working.
Again then, the Put up Workplace was run utilizing handbook techniques, however by the top of 2000, these had been changed by the Put up Workplace’s Horizon retail and accounting system, from Fujitsu – and issues rapidly went improper.
Bates was one of many seven subpostmasters interviewed as a part of Pc Weekly’s first investigation. He skilled unexplained losses and refused to log out accounts, as a result of he was positive the losses had been brought on by pc errors. The Put up Workplace tried to drive him to log out the accounts, however he continued to refuse. The Put up Workplace terminated his contract, taking his job, life financial savings and retirement plan with it.
However Bates was not executed with the Put up Workplace. He arrange an internet site to attempt to discover different subpostmasters having issues and campaigned at occasions such because the Nationwide Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) annual convention.
The Put up Workplace department owned by Alan Bates and Suzanne Sercombe in Craig-y-Don, Llandudno, Wales, with a banner selling the web site he set as much as attempt to discover different subpostmasters having issues with Horizon
What’s the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance?
Just some months after Pc Weekly publicised the plight of subpostmasters, Bates had been approached by extra subpostmasters who had been experiencing comparable issues and had discovered others. Collectively, they shaped the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) they and deliberate a gathering in Fenny Compton, a village in Warwickshire, resulting from its central location. Subpostmasters and former subpostmasters from throughout the nation turned up and a marketing campaign was born.
Why did MPs become involved?
One JFSA member – and one other of the primary seven interviewed by Pc Weekly – is Jo Hamilton. The previous subpostmaster in Hampshire began experiencing issues in October 2003. Put up Workplace auditors visited the department in March 2005 and advised Hamilton she owed £36,000. They prosecuted her for theft and 14 counts of false accounting.
The Put up Workplace advised her it will drop the theft cost if she pleaded responsible to false accounting. Fearing jail, she agreed, however proof has since proved the Put up Workplace had no proof of theft. Hamilton says the case didn’t cope with the difficulty of IT.
She was given a 12 months’s probation. Her home was remortgaged to pay the cash, and the villagers in South Warnborough collected £9,000 between them to assist. Her native MP, James Arbuthnot, received concerned with Hamilton’s case after Pc Weekly revealed her story. The Conservative MP, now within the Home of Lords, turned a significant campaigner in Parliament for the subpostmasters, alongside Labour MP Kevan Jones, whose constituent Tom Brown, a former subpostmaster in Newcastle, additionally suffered issues with Horizon.
What was the mediation scheme and Second Sight investigation?
With MPs starting to boost points, the government-owned Put up Workplace was pressured to take considerations significantly. In 2012, to fulfill calls for from politicians, it launched an exterior assessment and mediation scheme to take a look at instances the place subpostmasters had been alleging issues.
As a part of this, the Put up Workplace appointed and paid forensic accountancy firm Second Sight to research instances. There have been fears this is able to be used to comb the difficulty underneath the carpet. But when this was the Put up Workplace’s plan, as many suspected, it backfired. It quickly turned obvious to Second Sight that the subpostmasters weren’t thieves and fraudsters, however hard-working individuals combating a pc system and an organisation that cared for the status of that pc system over the very welfare of its subpostmaster community.
In 2013, Second Sight produced an interim report that exposed critical considerations in regards to the system.
Why did the Put up Workplace finish the mediation scheme and cease Second Sight’s investigation?
In March 2015, on the eve of the publication of its full investigation report, Second Sight’s work was stopped and the mediation scheme was closed. It had grow to be clear Second Sight was getting near the reality. The ultimate report discovered there was an actual risk that there had been miscarriages of justice within the Put up Workplace prosecutions. It stated the organisation had been too fast to prosecute earlier than investigating proof.
With the Put up Workplace obstructing progress, it was time for a distinct strategy. That is when the JFSA started its work in direction of a gaggle litigation order (GLO).
What was the Bates and others versus Put up Workplace Excessive Court docket group litigation order?
In 2015, after the collapse of the mediation scheme, the JFSA introduced that it was making ready a gaggle litigation, by which a whole bunch of victims would sue the Put up Workplace for the injury inflicted on them by the error-prone Horizon system, which the organisation nonetheless stated was strong and didn’t include errors that would trigger account shortfalls.
A gaggle motion is a case the place quite a few claimants with comparable claims get collectively to provoke an motion towards a single celebration. It’s much like a US class motion. Freeths Solicitors and Henderson Barristers Chambers ready the civil motion by the Excessive Court docket. Funding for the group motion was supplied by litigation funders, who lend cash to cowl authorized prices, which is paid again with curiosity when a case is received. About 1,000 former subpostmasters utilized to hitch the motion and it went ahead with 555.
The courtroom case proved subpostmasters had been proper in regards to the Horizon system – it contained bugs, errors and defects that would trigger accounting shortfalls. It revealed the reality and gave convicted subpostmasters the proof they wanted to attraction their convictions
In January 2017, the GLO was given the inexperienced mild when the Excessive Court docket of Justice agreed to handle the case.
In November 2018, the primary of 4 deliberate trials started, with proof from Alan Bates himself.
In December 2019, after two trials – the primary analyzing the contract between the Put up Workplace and subpostmasters, and the second targeted on the Horizon system – the Put up Workplace conceded and settled with the subpostmasters. However this occurred after the Put up Workplace tried to get the managing decide, Peter Fraser, to recuse himself, accusing him of bias.
The 555 claimants had been awarded £58m in compensation, however after prices solely £11m was left to share between them. However the case had proved they had been proper in regards to the Horizon system – it contained bugs, errors and defects that would trigger accounting shortfalls.
It revealed the reality and gave a whole bunch of convicted subpostmasters the proof they wanted to attraction their convictions. The Legal Circumstances Assessment Fee (CCRC) took on instances and the battle to quash convictions started
Why is the Put up Workplace scandal seen because the widest miscarriage of justice in UK historical past?
In December 2020, the primary six subpostmasters had their convictions primarily based on Horizon proof quashed in Southwark Crown Court docket. In April the next 12 months, an additional 39 wrongful subpostmaster convictions had been overturned within the landmark case bearing the identify of Jo Hamilton, Hamilton and others versus Put up Workplace, within the Court docket of Enchantment.
The decide not solely dominated that the prosecutions had been wrongful, however that they had been an affront to justice. Some 93 of over 736 convictions associated to Horizon have now been overturned, and the governement has introduced unprecedented plans for emergence laws to overturn the rest in a single group.
Former subpostmaster Hughie “Noel” Thomas is congratulated exterior courtroom after having his conviction quashed in April 2021
Why is compensation for subpostmasters nonetheless an ongoing injustice?
Regardless of greater than 20 years of struggling for a lot of subpostmasters and 4 years having handed for the reason that Excessive Court docket judgment, most subpostmasters are but to obtain the compensation they’re due. The Put up Workplace has quite a few totally different compensation schemes however progress to pay subpostmasters, a lot of whom are in monetary issue, is just too sluggish. Many have died earlier than receiving the cash they’re owed.
What’s the statutory public inquiry?
After the Excessive Court docket victory in 2019, the very first thing Alan Bates stated to Pc Weekly was that he needed a statutory public inquiry into the scandal. He received it in Might 2021, when a authorities inquiry into the scandal was made statutory.
After the Excessive Court docket victory in 2019, Alan Bates (pictured left) referred to as for a statutory public inquiry into the scandal – he received it in Might 2021
What has the general public inquiry uncovered?
The human affect hearings had been stunning, revealing the acute struggling of individuals by the hands of the Put up Workplace. Different phases have revealed that the Put up Workplace had information that the Horizon software program had bugs when rolled out, prosecution witnesses modified their statements when prompted by the Put up Workplace, and attorneys hid proof throughout trials of subpostmasters as a result of it will have made their prosecutions unsafe. It has additionally featured administrators, politicians and civil servants who, whether or not intentionally or not, contributed to the cover-up.
Who has been held to account?
To this point, no Put up Workplace or Fujitsu executives have been held accountable or punished for what occurred. The truth is, Fujitsu continues to money in on authorities IT contracts and former Put up Workplace CEO Paula Vennells walked away from the organisation in shame with an enormous payout. The one individuals who have been punished are the victims of the scandal.
Who’s Paula Vennells?
Paula Vennells, a former Anglican priest, was CEO of the Put up Workplace from 2012 to 2019 after serving in different senior roles on the organisation. She was awarded a CBE for providers to the Put up Workplace in 2019.
She jumped ship simply previous to the damaging Excessive Court docket judgment, which slammed the administration of the corporate that punished subpostmasters for errors made by its personal pc system. She took greater than £400,000 in pay and bonuses along with her.
There are requires her to be stripped of her CBE due to her function within the Put up Workplace scandal. Final 12 months, Alan Bates turned down an OBE as a result of he believed it will be “inappropriate” whereas victims nonetheless undergo and one of many scandal’s architects retains her honour.
What’s Mr Bates vs the Put up Workplace about?
An ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Put up Workplace, was broadcast in January 2024, bringing the true extent of the Put up Workplace scandal to a wider public. Within the video beneath, among the actors who performed the real-life victims of the Put up Workplace speak in regards to the appalling manner by which these harmless individuals had been handled.
Put up-drama, drama
Following the airing of Mr Bates vs The Put up Workplace on ITV within the first week of 2024, a 24-year-old scandal that has been reported by varied media shops since Pc Weekly broke the story in 2009, turned headline information. Newspapers, TV and radio jumped on the story.
Information, reported years in the past by Pc Weekly and one other choose few, turned information once more. The general public anger spurred the federal government into motion after years of lethargy. The federal government introduced unprecedented emergency laws to exonerate a whole bunch of wrongly convicted subpostmasters and MPs demanded an viewers with Fujitsu and the Put up Places of work bosses. Fujitsu apologised, admitted to its function in inflicting the scandal and stated it had an ethical obligation to contribute to the prices, together with monetary redress for victims, associated to the scandal.
Put up Workplace legal investigators might grow to be criminally investigated
Section 4 of the statutory public inquiry ran for six months, punctuated by delays because of the Put up Workplace’s failure to reveal info in a well timed method. Ironic, because the part was investigating the Put up Workplace’s authorized practices when prosecuting subpostmasters, which included failure to reveal info to subpostmaster defence groups.
The part should be seen within the context that over 100 subpostmasters have had wrongful legal convictions overturned, with about 800 extra set to be quashed en masse when authorities laws completes its journey by Parliament. The inquiry part additionally raised the prospect of Put up Workplace attorneys and investigators themselves being criminally investigated.
Pre-Horizon software program issues
Since ITV’s drama went out within the first week of 2024, former subpostmasters who haven’t but advised their tales have come ahead. This isn’t shocking, however what has been a shock is the quantity coming ahead complaining of unexplained losses when utilizing a pre-Horizon system often known as Seize.
A screenshot from inside the Seize software program reveals the Put up Workplace copyright discover
Individuals had been pressured to repay shortfalls on this method and a few had been prosecuted. Peer Kevan Jones, then MP for Durham North, was contacted by a constituent who had issues with Seize, and a rising quantity are in search of authorized recommendation. The Put up Workplace stated it’s taking this significantly and stated individuals can come ahead with claims.
Seize was not comparable with Horizon, however was a chunk of software program {that a} subpostmaster would add onto a private pc to do their accounts – it was a “glorified spreadsheet” in response to one subpostmaster. However there isn’t any purpose to consider the Put up Workplace handled unexplained losses on this method any in a different way to the best way it handled them on Horizon.
Following strain from campaigners the federal government has commissioned specialist investigators from forensic specialist Kroll to look at whether or not the Put up Workplace software program software precipitated unexplained loses that customers had been blamed for and in some instances convicted of economic crimes. On completion of its investigation Kroll concluded there’s a “cheap probability” that the system, used within the Nineties precipitated accounting shortfalls.
The Legal Circumstances Assessment Fee started reviewing some convictions of Seize customers in October 2024. The Horizon Compensation Advisory Board wrote to the secretary of state for justice urging the federal government to legislate to overturn convictions of subpostmasters primarily based on the error-prone system. The federal government stated it will not legislate however that: “The Legal Circumstances Assessment Fee is wanting right into a small variety of convictions which can be primarily based on proof from the Seize pc system. In the event that they contemplate that there’s a actual risk that these convictions are unsafe, they are going to be referred to the Court docket of Enchantment.”
