Hundreds of Post Office workers ‘vindicated’ by High Court ruling over faulty Post Office IT system

[Sasaferrato]

Many people did, including Private Eye, which often sells nearly 300,000 copies per issue (more than many national newspapers.)

Who or what is civil society tho.

What? Are you saying that there is no such thing as society?

 

[two sheds]

Post Office scandal: Scottish probe into sub-postmasters' convictions

More than 70 postmasters accused of fraud and theft will be asked if they want their cases re-examined.

www.bbc.co.uk

More cases to be re-examined - this time in Scotland. About fucking time really.

 

[equationgirl]

It's disgraceful it happened in the first place.

 

[two sheds]

Yep that's the way to reward your workforce.

 

[stdP]

It's disgraceful it happened in the first place.

Completely understandable though. If they hadn't bee able to throw the sub-postmasters under the bus, proper people might have had to take the blame for mandating a poorly engineered and pitifully tested system, and then resorting to systemic fraud and extortion when the numbers didn't add up, and think what that would have done to the share price.

How and why this didn't go straight in to criminal trials I can only hope is COVID-related. Last I looked there were plenty of smoking guns left lying around.

 

[philosophical]

I listened to the BBC series of podcasts on this.
Appalling.
I made a mental note to remind myself that whenever a person in power and authority uses the word 'obviously' the correct response would be to say 'hold it right there, why 'obviously'?' And interrogate the answer.
'Obviously' is one of Priti Patel's favourite words.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Great news.

Dozens of former sub-postmasters and postmistresses should get a clear path in quashing their convictions for fraud, theft and false accounting.

They were convicted of stealing money after the Post Office installed a new computer system, with some imprisoned.

Many have now been told the Post Office will not contest their appeals against conviction.

Post Office scandal: Postmasters celebrate huge victory against convictions

Dozens of postmasters should get a clear path in quashing convictions following years of campaigning.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[two sheds]

Yes that's really good news:

"Many have now been told the Post Office will not contest their appeals against conviction. "

You'd hope there'd be fairly severe damages due to some of them, although I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[alex_]

Yes that's really good news:

"Many have now been told the Post Office will not contest their appeals against conviction. "

You'd hope there'd be fairly severe damages due to some of them, although I wouldn't hold my breath.

youd hope that senior people in the post office are going to jail ...

 

[two sheds]

you'd fucking hope so since they were quite prepared to send sub postmasters/mistresses to jail

read something today about a postmaster told if he didn't plead guilty he'd be in jail

 

[Maggot]

Great news.

Nick Wallis is the man to follow on Twitter for this. He made the Radio 4 series about the scandal and has been investigating it for 10 years.

https://twitter.com/nickwallis

 

[two sheds]

Great news.

Nick Wallis is the man to follow on Twitter for this. He made the Radio 4 series about the scandal and has been investigating it for 10 years.

https://twitter.com/nickwallis

ahh he did the Private Eye coverage which is where I saw it

 

[stdP]

you'd fucking hope so since they were quite prepared to send sub postmasters/mistresses to jail

read something today about a postmaster told if he didn't plead guilty he'd be in jail

The gory details put the Post Office brass in an even worse light, sorry to say.

• There were multiple reports, both internal and external, that the Horizon system had serious errors including (but certainly not limited to) accounting flaws.
• PO suppressed and then outright destroyed evidence that Horizon had fundamental problems that had likely caused the accounting flaws.
• Horizon was designed in such a way that if an "accounting anomaly" cropped up, the following day the sub-postmaster had to cop to it and say "sorry Horizon, that was my fault, I must have made a mistake somewhere" before it would operate for the day - and if Horizon didn't operate, they couldn't run their Post Office.
• Fujitsu had people remotely access the post office systems to fiddle the numbers.
• Both of the above were used to pressure people in to essentially confessing to crimes that the Post Office accused them of.
• Despite being aware of all of the above, the brass still pursued prosecutions, mostly because the odds were completely stacked against the sub-postmasters and it was easier to throw them to the wolves than admitting Horizon was fucked beyond the dreams of Kafka.

The very lightest of the crimes the PO bosses can be accused of IMHO is withholding evidence, perjury and malicious prosecution. I'd be content with the judiciary throwing the book at everyone who was at least aware of the Second Sight reports, but only if said book was the complete Encyclopaedia Britannica, engraved in granite. But I'm sure it'll be blamed on the now-common "rogue engineer" or "it was the algorithm!" defence.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Fujitsu was the creator of the utterly appalling New Tax Credits system. They were fired because it didn't work properly.

Seventeen years later, it is still in place, and still doesn't work.

First renewal, there were tens of thousands of cases that wouldn't process, they were 'stored' for manual intervention. Then it was discovered that on a joint claim, one of the claimants couldn't have zero income, to get the renewal to process, applicant two had to have 1p put into their income box.

 

[Pickman's model]

The gory details put the Post Office brass in an even worse light, sorry to say.

• There were multiple reports, both internal and external, that the Horizon system had serious errors including (but certainly not limited to) accounting flaws.
• PO suppressed and then outright destroyed evidence that Horizon had fundamental problems that had likely caused the accounting flaws.
• Horizon was designed in such a way that if an "accounting anomaly" cropped up, the following day the sub-postmaster had to cop to it and say "sorry Horizon, that was my fault, I must have made a mistake somewhere" before it would operate for the day - and if Horizon didn't operate, they couldn't run their Post Office.
• Fujitsu had people remotely access the post office systems to fiddle the numbers.
• Both of the above were used to pressure people in to essentially confessing to crimes that the Post Office accused them of.
• Despite being aware of all of the above, the brass still pursued prosecutions, mostly because the odds were completely stacked against the sub-postmasters and it was easier to throw them to the wolves than admitting Horizon was fucked beyond the dreams of Kafka.

The very lightest of the crimes the PO bosses can be accused of IMHO is withholding evidence, perjury and malicious prosecution. I'd be content with the judiciary throwing the book at everyone who was at least aware of the Second Sight reports, but only if said book was the complete Encyclopaedia Britannica, engraved in granite. But I'm sure it'll be blamed on the now-common "rogue engineer" or "it was the algorithm!" defence.

you've missed off conspiracy as none of the bosses would have done it without the others

 

[two sheds]

Former subpostmasters begin court appeal to clear their names

Dozens appeal against convictions for theft, fraud and false accounting they claim were due to computing errors

www.theguardian.com

and

 

[Sasaferrato]

Former subpostmasters begin court appeal to clear their names

Dozens appeal against convictions for theft, fraud and false accounting they claim were due to computing errors

www.theguardian.com

and

I've followed this in the Eye, it has been a long hard fight.

 

[Maggot]

There's a radio documentary all this week on Radio 4 about this - the Post Office wrongly prosecuting hundreds of post office workers. It's on live now and also the programme website here:

BBC Radio 4 - The Great Post Office Trial, 3. I Love My Post Office

The extraordinary story of a campaign to uncover a massive scandal at the Post Office.

www.bbc.co.uk

This series is being repeated this week.

 

[bmd]

I first heard about this on a BBC doc. Fuck me. Utter cunts. Who would do that job where you go round and tell 100s of people with previously spotless characters they're a thieving cunt, without any proof? Wankers! Didn't someone kill their self over this?

See the post directly above this one for a link to that doc. @ me.

 

[philosophical]

Not only telling decent people serving the community they are thieves, but imprisoning them.
This scandal has had nowhere near enough publicity.

 

[marty21]

Fucking shoddy by the PO & tech companies involved , can't see anything about any action against any of them (apart from the compo agreed by the PO with no admission of fault)

 

[existentialist]

Fucking shoddy by the PO & tech companies involved , can't see anything about any action against any of them (apart from the compo agreed by the PO with no admission of fault)

Which is, of course, the perfect recipe to ensure that things like this continue to go on.

 

[two sheds]

the things that went on, lies they told and lives of people working for them they destroyed it should be criminal case.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Great breaking news....

The convictions of 39 subpostmasters and mistresses wrongly prosecuted by the Post Office were quashed by the Appeal Court today, in one of the single biggest cases of wrongful convictions in British history.

Dozens of former subpostmasters who were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting because of the Post Office's defective Horizon accounting system finally had their names cleared after one of the greatest legal scandals of modern times.

They included a postmistress who was sent to prison on the day of her son's 10th birthday and later suffering the indignity of having her baby in hospital while wearing a tag.

Call to prosecute Post Office bosses over ‘biggest miscarriage in British legal history’

Joy as court clears 39 subpostmasters over Horizon scandal, which could cost taxpayers more than £350m in compensation payments

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[stdP]

Bravo.

Now we just need some of the brass from RM and Fujitsu in the dock for fraud and perverting the course of justice.

 

[weltweit]

I have followed this story from time to time, scandalous, I hope those wrongly punished can get redress and compensation for their injuries.

 

[Pickman's model]

I have followed this story from time to time, scandalous, I hope those wrongly punished can get redress and compensation for their injuries.

I hope those responsible will lose everything and be left in penury

 

[Calamity1971]

I have followed this story from time to time, scandalous, I hope those wrongly punished can get redress and compensation for their injuries.

The legal bod just on the news isn't hopeful. They won't get legal aid and the cost to litigate for compensation is out of their reach.

 

[planetgeli]

I worked with this system (Horizon) for a couple of years just before all these people were charged. It was unremittingly shite. Had several known faults that had to be worked around. And in the main sub PO it NEVER added up correctly at the end of the day. Luckily for us it was only a matter of pence or a few pounds. But I've worked in bookies in the past where far more daily business was done and the system always added up at the end of the day.

Why did nobody stop to think "oh, these upstanding pillars of the community, how come 700 of them have turned to crime all at once?"

The people who made Horizon, and those responsible for upholding it, and those responsible for these prosecutions, should all be held to account. Prosecuted. But they won't be.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Local to me, this is just heart breaking...

Seema Misra

Served four months of a 15-month sentence in 2011, while pregnant, after being wrongly convicted of theft and false accounting.


No amount of money can make up for the struggle I went through,' says Mrs Misra, who was suspended from her post office in 2008 after auditors found a £74,609 shortfall she couldn't explain.

Her conviction has cast a shadow over every aspect of her life since her week-long trial at Guildford Crown Court in October 2010 saw her imprisoned while eight weeks pregnant with Jairaj.

A respectable woman so ashamed of her conviction she begged a prison officer to hide her handcuffs with their coat as she was led away to jail, she would have considered suicide, were it not for the new life growing inside her.

She gave birth two months after her release, on tag, after which the shame of her conviction made life unbearable.

'People stopped talking to us,' she says, while Mr Misra adds: 'I was beaten up and called a 'f***ing P*ki, coming to this country and stealing old people's money.'

They moved house but Mrs Misra, who developed depression, still felt unable to show her face at the school gates. 'I assumed everyone knew, and they weren't talking to me because I was a criminal.'

She didn't throw a birthday party for her youngest son for eight years. 'I didn't want everyone to know that Jairaj's mum was the one who went to prison,' she explains.

Mrs Misra, who sold the post office for less than half the price she paid, started helping her husband run his taxi firm. But while she was in prison, Mr Misra had to single-parent and the business floundered. The couple's second property in London had already been seized to pay off the missing money.

Even on her release, Mrs Misra was unable to get work because of her conviction. Once a financial controller in the City, she says: 'I thought I'd be able to become an Uber driver, but couldn't. When I applied for funds to do courses to re-enter the financial industry I wasn't allowed.'

Even the most mundane activities caused pain. 'Whenever I filled out a form for something like car insurance I'd have to state my conviction. It brought the bad memories back.'