Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

[Colin C No.3]

It took a TV ‘drama documentary’ to finally shed light on to the British public for what Sunak has rightly called (let’s see how quickly he acts to quash unlawful convictions & ‘fully financially compensate’ those sub postmasters who have been affected) “One of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our national history”.

It helped ‘galvanise’ the public to organise a petition signed by over 1 million people to strip the former head of the post office Paula Vennels of her CBE (which she now claims to be handing back voluntarily but no mention of the £400,000 she was awarded when she left office).

She has also ‘stepped back’ from her role as an Anglican priest.

How the hell she could have the audacity to stand in a pulpit & preach ‘goodness & light’ knowing full well that her own personal actions/non action was causing so much suffering to innocent individuals beggars belief.

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that the Post Office was now under criminal investigation over wrongful prosecutions and ‘potential fraud offences’ for monies ‘wrongfully clawed back’ that went into Post Office ‘profits’ as reported by The Times newspaper.

Ed Davey who was postal affairs minister between 2010 & 2012 said he was “deeply misled by Post Office executives”. My arse.

He’s one of many people I hope to see the ‘light of justice’ shone brightly on including executives of Fujitsu who owned, rolled out & controlled the Horizon software that ultimately failed to be as ‘robust’ as Vennels constantly assured anyone who questioned its reliability.

In today’s PMQ’s, the SNP leader Stephen Flynn said “…the Horizon Scandal is not the only unfolding scandal of injustice in the country that the British public are looking to this House for answers to. A House elected by them, for them”.

Flynn went on to name a number of other issues yet to be fully addressed by Parliament including the WASPI campaign, the Equitable Life Scandal , the Infected Blood Scandal (something I happen to have a ‘personal’ interest in which has now been ‘put on the back burner’ by Jeremy Hunt..which rhymes with..) the Glenfell Tower & Hillsborough disasters.

He went on to say “When the British people come ‘knocking on the door’ of this Chamber seeking justice, the government only ever answers when they have no other option left”, & that the public are “angry” at Westminster because “they know this place never really changes”.

Never a truer word was spoken.

[drfchound]

#all the same, perhaps.

[Not Now Kato]

The Post Office was the “victim”, investigator and prosecutor in the cases.

[drfchound]

Disgraceful is the only word to describe the way that to PO top brass handled this situation.
They should be made to repay any bonuses they received.

[tommy toes]

It's strange that the bugs in the system always showed a shortfall, never a surplus.

[selby]

   The heads of the post Office appointed for years including this numpty responsible for this show have been well paid for doing a very poor job  apart from one or two who hit the brick wall and got out.
  Between them they have been slow to adapt to the modern needs of the industry, have treated the workforce appallingly, have watched other companies surpass them, and have sold assets off and signed leases costing the earth in replacements.
  All while creaming off massive wage and bonuses to feather their own nest.

[tommy toes]

A bloke interviewed on the radio this morning.
He said he was employed by the post office as an independent investigator in one of the earliest cases in 2000.
A female post mistress was charged with theft and denied it and was going to court.After an extensive investigation he concluded that the only explanation was faults with the computer system. He prepared a file outlining his findings for the court.
The case did not go to court and was settled outside.
The file was kept by the PO and never seen again.

[BillyStubbsTears]

This is a truly appalling tragedy and there needs to be a major investigation to make sure the lessons are learned. After the poor sods whose lives have been wrecked get their justice.

[i_ateallthepies]

Disgraceful is the only word to describe the way that to PO top brass handled this situation.
They should be made to repay any bonuses they received.

Disgraceful?  Criminal would by my word for it and the sooner they are sent to jail the better.

[Sprotyrover]

A bloke interviewed on the radio this morning.
He said he was employed by the post office as an independent investigator in one of the earliest cases in 2000.
A female post mistress was charged with theft and denied it and was going to court.After an extensive investigation he concluded that the only explanation was faults with the computer system. He prepared a file outlining his findings for the court.
The case did not go to court and was settled outside.
The file was kept by the PO and never seen again.

If the Police can prove that there will be a large number of PO seniors going to court charged with Malfeasance in a Public office!

[Pancho Regan]

There are so many questions raised by this appalling scandal.

Did nobody in the Post Office senior management start to wonder why so many sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were apparently stealing from them, purely on the evidence of this software? Almost 1,000 employees accused of theft, whilst loudly protesting their innocence. Did nobody think there might be something not quite right?

Why weren't some forensic audits done when the cases started to  mount? If no cash was actually missing, a thorough audit unconnected to the Horizon software would surely have shown there was a flaw in the software?

We lost our village post office due to this, the poor sub-postmistress being sacked and the office closed down, never to re-open.

And of course not only were livelihoods and reputations lost, but so were some people's lives.

A disgrace beyond words.