U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he will introduce measures to reverse the convictions of more than 900 Post Office branch managers wrongly accused of theft or fraud because of a faulty computer system in what is considered one of the gravest injustices in the nation’s history.
Quick Read
- Reversal of Wrongful Convictions: Rishi Sunak announced measures to reverse the convictions of over 900 Post Office branch managers falsely accused of theft or fraud due to a faulty computer system.
- Recognition of Injustice: This move acknowledges one of the gravest injustices in the UK’s history, following a surge in public support for the victims after a television docudrama highlighted their plight.
- Background of the Scandal: The convictions stemmed from the Post Office’s Horizon IT system, developed by Fujitsu, which falsely showed unexplained losses, leading to wrongful accusations of dishonesty against branch managers.
- Legal Action and Court Ruling: After a group of postal workers took legal action in 2016, the High Court found in 2019 that the Horizon system was flawed, leading to serious issues about its reliability.
- Limited Number of Overturned Convictions: To date, only 95 out of around 900 convictions have been overturned.
- Public Outrage and Media Influence: A recent television docudrama, “Mr. Bates vs the Post Office,” played a significant role in galvanizing public support for the victims.
- Impact on Victims’ Lives: The scandal profoundly affected the lives of the accused, leading to suicides, broken marriages, and social ostracization.
- Compensation Plan: The government plans to allocate 1 billion pounds for compensation, with cleared individuals receiving at least 600,000 pounds and others affected receiving a minimum of 75,000 pounds.
- Potential for Unjust Acquittals: There is a risk that some postal employees who did commit fraud or theft might be wrongly acquitted and compensated.
- Investigation into Perpetrators: London police are investigating potential fraud related to the Post Office’s actions, and there are calls for accountability for those who allowed the prosecutions despite knowing the software issues.
- Public Inquiry for Accountability: An ongoing public inquiry is expected to identify the organizations and individuals responsible for the scandal.
- Unanswered Questions: Questions remain regarding the total amount of money unlawfully taken from the wrongfully convicted individuals by the Post Office.
The Associated Press has the story:
After British postal wrongly convictions scandal, Govt vows to achieve justice
Newslooks- LONDON (AP) —
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he will introduce measures to reverse the convictions of more than 900 Post Office branch managers wrongly accused of theft or fraud because of a faulty computer system in what is considered one of the gravest injustices in the nation’s history.
The announcement follows a television docudrama on the wrongdoing that created a huge surge of public support for the former postmasters, who have spent years trying to reclaim lives ruined by the scandal.
“This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history,” Sunak said. “People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own. The victims must get justice and compensation.”
Lawmakers said they would provide compensation to those who had been convicted. Some also called for bringing those to justice who were responsible for the wrongdoing.
Some things to know about the scandal:
WHAT HAPPENED?
After the Post Office rolled out the Horizon information technology system, developed by Japanese company Fujitsu, in 1999 to automate sales accounting, local Post Office managers began finding unexplained losses they were responsible to cover.
The state-owned Post Office maintained Horizon was reliable and accused branch managers of dishonesty. Between 2000 and 2014, around 900 postal workers were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting, with some convicted and imprisoned and others forced into bankruptcy.
In total, more than 2,000 people were affected by the scandal. Some killed themselves or attempted suicide. Others said that their marriages fell apart and reported becoming community pariahs.
A group of postal workers took legal action against the Post Office in 2016. Three years later, the High Court in London ruled that Horizon contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and that the Post Office “knew there were serious issues about the reliability” of the system.
“Failures of investigation and disclosure were so egregious as to make the prosecution of any of the ‘Horizon cases’ an affront to the conscience of the court,” Justice Timothy Holroyde said.
To date, just 95 convictions have been overturned, Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake said.
WHY NOW?
A government minister claimed this moment of reckoning has been long coming. But it was turbocharged by a four-part television docudrama that aired Jan. 1 and fueled public outrage that led to days of bruising headlines about the scandal and sparked a swift response by lawmakers.
The ITV show, “Mr. Bates vs the Post Office,” told the story of branch manager Alan Bates, played by Toby Jones, who has spent nearly two decades trying to expose the scandal and exonerate his peers.
Despite hundreds of news stories over the years about court hearings and an ongoing public inquiry, the show seen by millions rapidly galvanized support for victims of the injustice.
More than 1 million people signed an online petition calling for former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells to lose her Commander of the Order of the British Empire title she received in 2018. By the end of Tuesday, she said she would relinquish the honor.
WHO WAS AFFECTED?
The Post Office is state-owned with independent franchise operators. Branch owners and employees typically lived in the communities where they operated, and many became outcasts when accused of stealing.
Lisa Brennan, a former clerk at a post office in Huyton, near Liverpool, told the inquiry that after being falsely accused of stealing 3,000 pounds ($3,800) in 2003, her marriage fell apart, she lost her house and ended up homeless with a young daughter.
“It’s scandalous, it should never have happened,” she told the inquiry in 2022. “I wasn’t the only one, but that’s what I was told: ‘It’s only you, you’re the only one.’”
Janine Powell, a former subpostmistress in Tiverton in Devon who was accused of stealing around 71,000 pounds ($90,000), said she felt broken after being sentenced to 18 months in prison after being convicted in 2008.
She had to leave her three children, who ranged in age from 10 to 18 at the time, and that strained their relationship. She harmed herself, considered suicide and struggled to get a job after her release.
“It had a big impact. You have to declare obviously that you’ve got a criminal record,” Powell said. “When you try to explain (to employers), it’s a ‘no’ straight away, so I couldn’t work.”
WHAT COMPENSATION COULD THEY RECEIVE?
The government plans to set aside 1 billion pounds ($1.27 billion) to compensate the wrongly convicted, and others whose lives were destroyed in the scandal.
To date, nearly 150 million pounds have been paid to more than 2,500 victims, Sunak said.
The legislation envisioned would quash convictions and award those who have been cleared at least 600,000 pounds ($763,000), the government said. They could receive more if they go through a process to assess their claim.
Those who were not convicted, but lost money would be offered at least 75,000 pounds ($95,000).
The government said that there is a chance that some postal employees who did commit fraud or theft could end up being exonerated and receive compensation.
“The risk is that instead of unjust convictions, we shall end up with unjust acquittals and we just do not know how many,” Hollinrake said. “But we cannot make the provision of compensation subject to a detailed examination of guilt.”
IS ANYONE BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE?
Last week, police in London said that they were investigating potential fraud related to money the Post Office received as a result of prosecutions or civil actions against postal workers. They are also looking into possible perjury or perversion of justice charges over the Post Office’s investigation and prosecution of the cases.
Some members of Parliament called for bringing charges against those who had been aware of the software problems and allowed prosecutions to go forward.
“Will the government accelerate the investigations to convict those who are really guilty of causing this scandal by perverting the course of justice?” said David Davis, a Conservative member of the House of Commons.
Hollinrake said the ongoing public inquiry will identify the organizations and individuals responsible for the scandal.
Duncan Baker, a Conservative who had once run a postal branch in Norfolk, said he wanted to know how much money the Post Office pocketed.
“One question that has never been answered is just how much money was taken unlawfully from thousands of innocent men and women,” Baker said. “The Post Office took that money — we have never known that figure.”
