Post Office spent over £132m of taxpayer money defending itself

The Post Office has spent over £132m of taxpayer money ( £82m in the 12 mon ths to 31st March 2024, £38m the previous 12 months, and £12m in the year prior to that, defending itself at the inquiry into the wrongful conviction of 900 sub-postmasters who were prosecuted wrongly for shortfalls in their accounts caused by bugs in Fujitsu’s Horizon IT system in what has been described as one of the most widespread miscarriages in British legal history. Most sub-postmasters wrongly convicted lost their livelihoods or were forced to make up shortfalls from their own money, while some former sub-postmasters … Continue reading Post Office spent over £132m of taxpayer money defending itself

£100m of public funds spent to prosecute innocent sub-postmasters with false evidence

A draft report reveals that the Post Office spent £100m  fighting sub-postmasters in court despite knowing its defence was untrue. The Post Office was shown evidence by 2017 that losses could be due to errors in the Horizon IT system or remote tampering, but kept arguing in the Bates Vs Post Office Ltd case that theft or mistakes by sub-postmasters must be to blame. Patrick Green RC, the lead barrister for the sub-postmasters in the Bates case, said these finding were “absolutely shocking and don’t think the case should have happened. Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters were … Continue reading £100m of public funds spent to prosecute innocent sub-postmasters with false evidence