Post Office manager’s ‘regret’ over IT report

A FORMER Post Office manager has told a public inquiry he “regrets” not reading a damning expert’s report about the Horizon system during civil action against a subpostmistress.

Ex-chief operating officer David Miller said his failure to read the 2003 report from IT expert Jason Coyne and counsel’s advice about the case of Julie Wolstenholme was a “missed opportunity”.

Ms Wolstenholme ran a branch in Cleveleys, Lancashire, and was pursued for £25,000 through the civil court by the Post Office. The company later settled the case for around £180,000.

Mr Coyne was instructed to assess whether the subpostmistress was responsible for the losses at her branch, but produced a report which said the Horizon system was “clearly defective”.

Under questioning during the proceedings, Mr Miller denied “lying through my teeth” about not reading the report.

Sam Stein KC, who represents a number of subpostmasters, asked the witness: “Mr Miller, one of two things arise from that, you’re either lying through your teeth or you’re a complete incompetent – which?”

Mr Miller responded: “I’m not lying through my teeth.” Mr Stein continued: “Right, so incompetence?” Mr Miller said: “If you wish to say that, yes.”

Mr Stein then asked: “Well, do you agree it’s incompetence not to have read a report in these circumstances?”

Mr Miller replied: “I’m not happy that I didn’t read that report.”

Mr Miller told the Horizon IT inquiry that Ms Wolstenholme winning her tribunal appeal against the Post Office in 2002 would have been a “significant challenge to the business model”.

He said: “What she was doing would be considered by me and others to be a threat to the whole … if she was wanting to change the subpostmasters’ contract and challenged that, that would be a significant challenge to the business model.”

Ahead of the civil case in 2004, the inquiry previously heard emails between two Fujitsu employees spoke of how ex-Post Office solicitor Mandy Talbot had advised that “the safest way to manage this is to throw money at it and get a confidentiality agreement signed”.

Mr Miller said he learned of Mr Coyne’s report during a meeting with head of security Tony Marsh.

In his witness statement, he said: “He told me there was an issue with the expert advice which had led our counsel to say the case was unlikely to succeed. It was clear that he did not think much of the expert.

“The view was that we should cut our losses and pay up. He said something about Horizon – I cannot recall specifically what he said, but I remember checking with him whether there were issues with Horizon (I said something like: ‘You are not saying there are issues with Horizon are you, Tony?’)

“He said that there were no issues and I got the impression it was a one-off case.

“Knowing what I now know about Horizon and the way it was used to wrongly prosecute and bring civil claims against subpostmasters, I very much regret not reading the expert’s report and counsel’s advice. Had I done so I would have taken action to address the issues raised.”