Police probe UK Post Office for accusing over 700 employees of theft. The culprit was an IT glitch

LONDON: UK police have opened a fraud investigation into Britain’s Put up Workplace over a miscarriage of justice that noticed a whole lot of postmasters wrongfully accused of stealing cash when a defective pc system was accountable. The Metropolitan Police drive mentioned late Friday that it’s investigating “potential fraud offences arising out of those prosecutions,” regarding cash the Put up Workplace obtained “on account of prosecutions or civil actions” towards accused postal staff.Police are also investigating potential offenses of perjury and perverting the course of justice over investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Put up Workplace.Between 1999 and 2015, greater than 700 put up workplace department managers have been accused of theft or fraud as a result of computer systems wrongly confirmed that cash was lacking. Many have been financially ruined after being pressured to pay giant sums to the corporate, and a few have been convicted and despatched to jail. A number of killed themselves.The actual perpetrator was a faulty pc accounting system known as Horizon, equipped by the Japanese know-how agency Fujitsu, that was put in in native Put up Workplace branches in 1999.The Put up Workplace maintained for years that information from Horizon was dependable and accused department managers of dishonesty when the system confirmed cash was lacking.After years of campaigning by victims and their legal professionals, the Court docket of Enchantment quashed 39 of the convictions in 2021. A decide mentioned the Put up Workplace “knew there have been severe points in regards to the reliability” of Horizon and had dedicated “egregious” failures of investigation and disclosure.A complete of 93 of the postal staff have now had their convictions overturned, in response to the Put up Workplace. However many others have but to be exonerated, and solely 30 have agreed to “full and ultimate” compensation funds. A public inquiry into the scandal has been underway since 2022.Thus far, nobody from the publicly owned Put up Workplace or different firms concerned has been arrested or confronted legal costs.Lee Castleton, a former department supervisor who went bankrupt after being pursued by the Put up Workplace for lacking funds, mentioned his household was ostracized of their hometown of Bridlington in northern England. He mentioned his daughter was bullied as a result of folks thought “her father was a thief, and he’d take cash from previous folks.”He mentioned victims needed these accountable to be named.”It is about accountability,” Castleton informed Occasions Radio on Saturday. “Let’s have a look at who made these choices and made this occur.”The long-simmering scandal stirred new outrage with the published this week of a TV docudrama, “Mr. Bates vs the Put up Workplace.” It charted a two-decade battle by department supervisor Alan Bates, performed by Toby Jones, to show the reality and clear the wronged postal staff.Put up Workplace Chief Govt Nick Learn, appointed after the scandal, welcomed the TV sequence and mentioned he hoped it could “increase additional consciousness and encourage anybody affected who has not but come ahead to hunt the redress and compensation they deserve.”A lawyer for a number of the postal staff mentioned 50 new potential victims had approached legal professionals for the reason that present aired on the ITV community.”The drama has elevated public consciousness to an entire new stage,” lawyer Neil Hudgell mentioned. “The British public and their overwhelming sympathy for the plight of those poor folks has given some the energy to lastly come ahead. These numbers improve by the day, however there are such a lot of extra on the market.”