Scandal sufferer will get go away to attraction determination to separate case in opposition to Put up Workplace and Fujitsu
Former subpostmaster Lee Castleton has obtained go away to attraction a Excessive Courtroom determination to separate his multimillion-pound authorized declare in opposition to Fujitsu and the Put up Workplace. A full listening to to find out his attraction will now happen within the Courtroom of Enchantment within the subsequent few months.
Castleton, who was awarded an OBE in 2024, is without doubt one of the seven former subpostmasters who spoke to Laptop Weekly as a part of its first investigation into the Horizon scandal in 2008/9.
He’s suing the Put up Workplace and Fujitsu for thousands and thousands of kilos for fraud on the premise of two separate authorized proceedings. These are a judgement in favour of the Put up Workplace in opposition to him in 2007, which he stated was gained by means of false info, and a gaggle litigation order (GLO) settlement in 2019.
In January, a Excessive Courtroom listening to heard arguments from Fujitsu and Put up Workplace authorized groups for there to be separate trial for the 2 authorized proceedings. The Put up Workplace authorized staff stated it was “involved not solely to make sure that it doesn’t incur pointless value, but in addition that Mr Castleton doesn’t must both”.
It stated it’s defending this declare not as a result of Castleton just isn’t entitled to redress, which it stated “he plainly is” however as a result of it considers that the right path to that redress is thru the compensation scheme, designed for subpostmasters that took half within the GLO.
Castleton’s staff argued in opposition to this, however Excessive Courtroom decide Justice Trower dominated that the declare can be cut up in two, a call which Castleton has now been granted go away to attraction.
Horizon errors
Castleton stated that within the 2007 proceedings in opposition to him, the court docket was misled by unfaithful statements in regards to the reliability of errors within the Horizon system, and that the Put up Workplace and Fujitsu each knew this however nonetheless proceeded to acquire the judgement in opposition to him to make an instance of him.
It was 2006, when his department in Bridlington, North Yorkshire confirmed a lack of £26,000 that he couldn’t clarify, that the Put up Workplace demanded he made up the shortfall. He was so involved in regards to the debt that he refused to pay it again and determined to go to court docket to contest the Put up Workplace’s insistence that he ought to pay. Castleton was pressured to signify himself within the Excessive Courtroom trial. The Put up Workplace did not disclose proof that will have supported his claims that the shortfalls had been brought on by Horizon errors – not him or his workers.
The Put up Workplace spent greater than £320,000 on a civil court docket motion to retrieve the phantom shortfalls in his department. It has been acknowledged throughout the Put up Workplace scandal public inquiry that his “head was placed on a spike”, as his case in 2006 was utilized by the Put up Workplace to discourage others from difficult it over Horizon system errors.
Learn extra about Castleton: Subpostmaster calls for names of Put up Workplace executives who crushed him to suffocate fact.
On the time Castleton challenged the Put up Workplace within the Excessive Courtroom, an error within the Horizon system – often called the Calendar Sq. bug – was identified however not revealed to him.
Through the Put up Workplace scandal public inquiry listening to in 2023, an e-mail courting again to 2006, from a Put up Workplace government to an government at Fujitsu, revealed that proof was stored from Castleton. Marked “Calendar Sq.: URGENT”, the e-mail learn: “Our authorized staff on the court docket can be doing their greatest to steer the court docket to not permit [Lee] Castleton to name this proof as a result of it’s filed late and doesn’t relate to the issues at his department.”
The second authorized continuing being challenged in his present declare got here in 2019. Following two out of a deliberate 4 trials within the Excessive Courtroom Bates vs The Put up Workplace GLO, 550 subpostmasters together with Castleton proved the Put up Workplace Horizon system was responsible for account shortfalls. They agreed to a settlement with the Put up Workplace, which left victims with redress funds, however important proof that was not disclosed on the time has been revealed since that settlement.
Following the granting of the go away to attraction the choice to separate the case, Castleton’s lawyer Simon Goldberg, senior associate at Simons Muirhead Burton, stated: “After every little thing he has been by means of, Castleton now desires vindication by means of a court docket of regulation. We’re very happy that our shopper has been granted go away to attraction in his case and we look ahead to arguing his case on the listening to earlier than the Courtroom of Enchantment sooner or later.”
The Put up Workplace and Fujitsu had not responded to questions by the point this text was revealed.
The Put up Workplace scandal was first uncovered by Laptop Weekly in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered as a result of Horizon accounting software program, which led to essentially the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British historical past (see beneath timeline of Laptop Weekly articles in regards to the scandal since 2009).
