Criminal inquiry to take another two years, says Met

A NATIONWIDE investigation into potential criminal offences linked to the Post Office scandal will last for at least another two years, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has said.

Sir Mark Rowley said an exhaustive investigation was under way to determine whether any crimes had been committed but it would “not be quick”.

Detectives will have to trawl tens of millions of documents and the investigation will follow the public inquiry into the issue, which is due to publish its findings late next year.

The Met first launched an investigation into potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice four years ago, in January 2020.

Two former expert witnesses have been interviewed under caution in relation to those alleged offences.

Earlier this month, Scotland Yard confirmed it was investigating possible additional offences of fraud concerning “monies recovered from sub-postmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions”.

Yesterday, Sir Mark told LBC: “We’re now working with police forces across the country to pull together what will have to be a national investigation, which we’ll pull together because there are hundreds of postmasters and mistresses from across the country.

“Fujitsu is based in one part of the country and the Post Office is another part of the country. [It is a] massive piece of work to do.”

He said that the investigation would follow on from the public inquiry, which will publish its findings “late next year”. He added that, realistically, it would take until at least 2026 for the police investigation to be completed.

He said: “At the core of the issue you’ve potentially got fraud in terms of false documents, if it’s for financial purposes, and you’ve potentially got perverting the course of justice, if people have deliberately set in train evidence into a legal process which they know is false.

“To prove this to a criminal standard is different to what’s in a documentary. We have to prove beyond all reasonable doubt, really 99.99 per cent, that individuals knowingly corrupted something.

“So that’s going way beyond incompetence, you have to prove deliberate malice, and that has to be done very thoroughly with an exhaustive investigation. So it won’t be quick.”

‘We’re working with forces across the country to pull together what will have to be a national investigation’