The Guardian view on the Post Office scandal: accountability is long overdue

The cruel treatment of thousands of subpostmasters is a cautionary tale about technology as well as access to justice

Between 1999 and 2015 at least 3,500 sub-postmasters across the UK were wrongly blamed for discrepancies in the accounts of the post offices they ran – when the real cause was faulty software. This is the crux of a scandal that involves Fujitsu, Japan’s biggest technology company, as well as the Post Office and the UK government that owned it. At the time the Horizon system, which cost £1bn, was the largest non-military IT system in Europe. An ITV drama screened last week, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, has pushed this disgraceful saga back into the news. But in many cases justice, if it comes at all, will be too late. At least four sub-postmasters have taken their own lives in the intervening years, while others died of natural causes before receiving compensation.

Two decades after victims first identified IT problems as the probable cause of the discrepancies, it is far from clear how or when their campaign will conclude. A public inquiry was established in 2020, and made statutory – giving it increased powers – a year later. There is more than one compensation scheme, but progress has been shockingly slow. So far 93 criminal convictions have been quashed in what the Criminal Cases Review Commission has called the “most widespread miscarriage of justice” it has ever seen – with a total of 700 people convicted of theft or other offences linked to their accounts. Last week, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that the Post Office itself is under criminal investigation for potential fraud. Two former Fujitsu experts have been investigated for perjury and perverting the course of justice.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Nz1uRt4

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