Post Office bosses ‘plotted to raid’ sub-postmaster pensions
POST Office bosses plotted to raid convicted sub-postmasters’ pensions to make up account shortfalls, an inquiry has heard.
David Miller, the Post Office’s former chief operating officer, denied being the architect of what he described as a “horrendous” plan to target the pensions of sub-postmasters accused of theft.
The Horizon IT inquiry was shown minutes from a December 2004 Post Office board meeting where it said that Mr Miller was assigned the task of ensuring “that the pensions of fraudsters were targeted to help ensure the company was reimbursed”.
More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted over a 16-year period after faulty Fujitsu software incorrectly recorded shortfalls on their accounts.
Yet when questioned on the notes yesterday, Mr Miller denied proposing the measure. He told the inquiry: “I don’t recall this in any detail at all. But I certainly didn’t propose that. Seeing it here, it sounds horrendous. Sorry, it sounds severe in terms of its intention.”
The former Post Office boss also denied describing Fujitsu as a “bayonet up [his] posterior”.
Another document read: “The leaders at Post Office Counters Ltd (POCL) felt they had been shafted by a Government/pathway stitch-up. Dave Miller, the MD of Post Office Network, said at the time: “I have the same feelings about Pathway as I would for the man who had just shoved 15 inches of bayonet up my posterior’. No statement could more adequately express the attitude of Post Office towards Pathway.”
When asked by counsel to the inquiry Emma Price if he recalled making such a comment, Mr Miller, who left the Post Office when he retired in 2006, said: “Absolutely not.”
The former chief operating officer said there was a “resentment” towards the company, later known as Fujitsu.
The 74-year-old’s evidence was followed by that of former chief executive David Mills, who held the top job from April 2002 up until the end of 2005.
Mr Mills, who previously had a career in banking before joining the organisation, told the inquiry that Sir Tony Blair’s Labour government had instructed the Post Office to pay its bosses “generous” bonuses.
At the time Patricia Hewitt was secretary of state for trade and industry.
Asked about his remuneration as chief executive, Mr Mills said: “First of all it was fixed, and then, I recall, the secretary of state made it extremely clear to Allan Leighton (chairman of Royal Mail Group) that she expected the senior executive of the entire group to have remuneration that was performance-based, and that the targets for that performance should be stretching, and that the rewards for that stretching success were not to be miserly, they should be generous.”
Mr Mills also told the inquiry that when he was first appointed the Post Office was losing £1 million every day.
“It didn’t take me long to realise that we had a burning ship, it was losing a million pounds every single day it operated,” he said.
Today the Post Office inquiry will hear from Mr Leighton, the ex-chairman and non-executive director of Post Office Ltd. The Telegraph has contacted Labour and the NHS Trust, of which Ms Hewitt is now chairman, for a response.