Seven important suspects below police investigation in nationwide Put up Workplace probe

Police are at the moment investigating 45 individuals in relation to potential crimes within the Put up Workplace scandal, with seven to date formally recognized as suspects.

The nationwide police investigation, often known as Operation Olympos, was introduced final yr by the Nationwide Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which is spearheading the work alongside the Metropolitan Police.

The crew of 100 officers from throughout the nation initially had 1.5 million paperwork to evaluation, which has now reached the six million mark, after preliminary investigation. The variety of paperwork and suspects is predicted to rise, based on a NPCC assertion.

The Put up Workplace scandal noticed lots of of subpostmasters wrongfully prosecuted resulting from unexplained account shortfalls that had been brought on by errors within the Horizon system. 1000’s misplaced their livelihoods and had their lives turned the other way up after repaying the unexplained losses. Round 900 had been wrongfully convicted of economic crimes and lots of had been jailed because of the miscarriages of justice. It’s described because the widest miscarriage of justice in UK historical past.

Victims central to investigation

Commander Stephen Clayman, who’s main Operation Olympos, mentioned: “Victims stay on the coronary heart of this investigation and our contact with the many individuals affected by the Put up Workplace Horizon scandal continues to extend.”

Your entire investigation crew met this week in particular person for the primary time to “reaffirm our give attention to the investigative technique and talk about subsequent steps”, he added.

Up to now, 4 people have been interviewed – two in late 2021, one in late 2024 and the fourth earlier this yr.

“Formally figuring out a suspect and getting ready to query them takes a major period of time as a result of quantity of fabric and enquiries mandatory, so these numbers will proceed to rise because the crew’s work progresses,” mentioned Clayman. “We’re making progress and laying the foundations for what’s to return.”

The police beforehand said the investigation was set as much as initially have a look at the potential crimes of perjury and perverting the course of justice, targeted on “key people” concerned in subpostmaster prosecutions. Part two units out to analyze wider offences.

Police haven’t dominated out investigating the Put up Workplace for fraud in relation to its coverage of forcing subpostmasters to repay unexplained shortfalls. In October, throughout a public inquiry listening to, former Put up Workplace CEO Nick Learn mentioned it had to date been established that the Put up Workplace took round £36m between 1999 and 2015 from subpostmasters, who had been pressured to cowl shortfalls of their accounts that didn’t really exist.

In December, Clayman mentioned police will “go the place the proof takes” them, with no particular person or crime out of the scope of the investigation. People from the Put up Workplace and Fujitsu and doubtlessly others will likely be inside scope of an investigation that would will cowl greater than 20 years of proof.

Years within the making

As Laptop Weekly revealed in 2020, the Met Police started assessing proof of potential perjury offences dedicated by Fujitsu workers in felony trials of subpostmasters prosecuted for accounting errors brought on by a pc system.

In January that yr, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) referred the considerations of Excessive Courtroom choose Peter Fraser in regards to the accuracy of proof given by Fujitsu workers in felony trials to the Metropolitan Police. This adopted his judgment that discovered errors within the Horizon system had brought on the unexplained department account shortfalls skilled by subpostmasters.

Three months later, the Met Police started assessing proof of potential perjury offences and in November 2021, it opened a felony investigation into Fujitsu workers who gave proof in trials of subpostmasters. These had been tech employees Gareth Jenkins and Anne Chambers.

Final yr, the Metropolitan Police introduced a nationwide investigation – now often known as Operation Olympos – into the Put up Workplace scandal. This adopted public outrage stoked by ITV’s dramatisation of the Put up Workplace scandal.

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 accounting software program (see timeline of Laptop Weekly articles in regards to the scandal beneath).