Irish Independent

Former UK Post Office chair did nothing to stop wave of charges against staff

- JOSH PAYNE AND PIERS MUCKLEJOHN

A former chairman of the UK’s postal service said he “didn’t do anything” to check the organisati­on’s employees were being properly prosecuted.

Michael Hodgkinson told the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry he is “very, very sorry for the misery” that was caused to subpostmas­ters during the Horizon scandal, but claimed he had tried to “make sure the business was run as well as I could”.

Mr Hodgkinson, who was chairman of the Post Office between 2003 and 2007, said he tried to “make sure that people took action” when problems were raised, but offered an “unreserved apology” for not discoverin­g that there were issues with the Horizon system.

After Mr Hodgkinson said he was not informed during his induction that the Post Office prosecuted its own staff, Sam Stein KC, who represents a number of subpostmas­ters, asked: “So when did you learn about the process of prosecutio­n by the Post Office of which you were chair?” He replied: “I think that was much later on.”

Mr Stein continued: “And did you say to the people around you, ‘that’s a bit of a surprise, I’m a bit surprised we prosecute our own staff, I’d like to know a bit more about it?’.”

The witness responded: “No, I didn’t.” Mr Stein then asked: “Well, you’ve suddenly been made aware that you’re the chair of a prosecutio­n authority... that’s an unusual thing given your business background. What did you do to investigat­e the Post Office was properly prosecutin­g its own members?”

Mr Hodgkinson said: “I didn’t do anything.”

Towards the end of his evidence to the inquiry yesterday, he said: “I definitely want to say something.

“I’ve been saddened and appalled at the evidence that’s come out over the last 15 years since I left, where so many postmaster­s and [post] mistresses were unfairly prosecuted under the Horizon system and as a result suffered the most dreadful experience­s and devastatin­g consequenc­es – not just for themselves, but for their families.

“I just want to put on record that I apologise unreserved­ly for the fact that while I was chairman of the Post Office I did not discover the problems with the Horizon system. All I can say is, I’m very, very sorry for the misery that that then subsequent­ly caused – so I apologise again unreserved­ly.”

Continuing his questionin­g, Mr Stein asked the former chairman: “Sir Michael, I understand you apologise, but what part of it was your fault?”

He responded: “You just don’t really know, I mean, what else could I have done?

“I tried to make sure the business was run as well as I could.

“Where there were issues reported to us I tried to make sure that people took action – there’s not much you can do.”

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