Page 45 - Real Rochdale Issue 21 Spring 2024

POST OFFICE HORIZON SCANDaL
This is the first in a series of articles in which Molesworths’ dispute resolution team will review
the Post Office Horizon scandal, the issues arising from it, and what might happen next.
The Post Office Horizon scandal was catapulted
back into the media spotlight following the ITV
drama series ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office’. The
convictions of hundreds of sub-postmasters and
sub-postmistresses for false accounting and
theft between 2000 and 2014 resulted in some
people going to prison, loss of livelihoods, and
tragically, in a few cases, loss of life. Even though
a public inquiry is ongoing, it is already being
described as the most widespread miscarriage of
justice in English legal history.
The background
In 1999 the Post Office (“PO”) introduced the
Horizon IT system, which had been developed by
ICL Pathway, owned by Fujitsu. The new
software was rolled out to its branches and
sub-post offices.
Self-employed sub-postmasters, who ran branch
POs under contract with the PO, were
contractually responsible for any shortfalls in
their branch accounts.
They faced immense pressure to make up for
unexplained shortfalls, which, in many cases,
were due to faults in the Horizon system.
The PO consistently denied that the Horizon
system was faulty and resisted the
sub-postmasters’ reports of faults in the system.
In many cases, they falsely claimed to
complainants that no other sub-postmasters had
reported problems.
Under English law, every individual and
organisation has the right to bring a private
criminal prosecution against another individual
or organisation.
The PO used its team of employed investigators
and external lawyers to prosecute more than
700 sub-postmasters for crimes like theft and
false accounting, based on the faulty data from
REAL ROCHDALE - SPRING 2024 44
the Horizon system. Many were sent to prison,
and others faced severe penalties like commu-
nity service, electronic tagging, and heavy fines.
Second Sight, an independent investigative
organisation, was appointed in 2012 to conduct
a separate inquiry into these issues. Their
reports revealed software defects in the
Horizon system. However, the PO initially
claimed that whilst defects were in existence, the
system, overall, was effective.
Legal battles in the form of a group litigation
action followed and in 2019, the case was set-
tled out of court for £58 million. However, this
settlement left many claimants with a fraction of
their losses after legal costs were accounted for.
In April 2021, the PO announced that the
Horizon system would be replaced by a new IT
system. This came as an acknowledgement of
the need for a more reliable and user-friendly
system.
What happens next?
1. The government has said that those wrongly
convicted will have their convictions
overturned quickly. The legal mechanism for
doing this is still unclear.
2. The government has set up a compensation
scheme, which, it says, will expediate full and
fair compensation for the those wrongly
convicted. But the scheme is attracting
widespread criticism.
3. There is an ongoing public inquiry led by
retired High Court judge Sir Wyn Williams.
His report is unlikely to be available before
2025, but - when published - it is likely to call
for extensive reform of the many facets that
have resulted in the Horizon IT scandal.
In the next article we will consider the function
and use of private prosecutions by commercial
organisations.
45 REAL ROCHDALE - SPRING 2024