LESSONS FROM THE POST OFFICE SCANDAL
In 1999 the British Post Office, known as Post Office Limited (POL), introduced a new accounting system called Horizon. It was installed across the country, and it was obligatory for subpostmasters and subpostmistresses (SPMs) to log every transaction within their branch. Although denied for many years, it has been shown that Horizon was subject to many bugs and errors, including problems such as the system creating phantom transactions which meant accounting records did not balance. When SPMs reported these errors to POL they were ignored – or worse, the SPMs were blamed. Each SPM was told repeatedly: “You are the only one suffering these problems.” Between 2000-14, 736 SPMs were prosecuted for offences including false accounting fraud and theft. Some went to prison. Tragically, at least one SPM committed suicide.
The SPMs also had a contractual obligation to make good any shortfall. So, in addition to a criminal record, each lost large sums of money they often borrowed from friends and family.
In 2017-19, group litigation resulted in a multimillion-pound settlement, although most of this money had to be paid to litigation funders because of the huge associated costs – a product of POL choosing to fight a long and difficult legal battle. Then, in the first appeal against criminal convictions of 39 SPMs, the Court of Appeal found that POL knew but failed to disclose information about the problems.
Oct-Dec 2024 Issue
GSK
Aria Grace Law CIC