Post Office ‘bullying’ in jail scandal

BOSSES behind Britain’s biggest miscarriage of justice – which led to hundreds of postmasters wrongly branded criminals – are still “bullying” victims, an MP has claimed.

Hundreds were jailed or financially ruined after a computer system pinpointed that tens of thousands of pounds had gone missing from their branches.

Over more than a decade the lives of innocent people who ran Post Offices, many in rural communities, were turned on their heads as a result of being accused of unexplained shortfalls.

Of those wrongly accused of having their hands in the till many were made to pay back supposedly missing funds or face prosecution.

Some were convicted and imprisoned, one while pregnant, while hundreds more pleaded guilty to lesser charges to prevent further legal action.

Last year, after a protracted court battle, the Post Office finally admitted the £1billion Fujitsu Horizon IT package was fallible and a High Court judge awarded £57million to 550 former sub-postmasters.

To many victims the payout will amount to just £20,000 after legal costs and last week the Prime Minister promised Parliament a full public inquiry into the scandal.

But now the company, which has promised complete “transparency”, has been accused of withholding documents from the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) which might help quash convictions. Labour’s Karl Turner used Commons’ privilege to raise his fears. The Hull East MP, a criminal lawyer, highlighted some “startling documents” shown to him by a woman desperately fighting to clear her name.

He said: “In 2006, a sub-postmaster was prosecuted. I have documents showing discussions between lawyers within the Post Office conceding that there was no theft, no dishonesty, no fraud and no false accounting in this case, yet she was prosecuted.”

Mr Turner claimed: “When this person found out these documents existed, she asked the Post Office whether they would produce them to the CCRC and she was met with aggression. She was told that these documents were privileged and that if they were leaked she could be in serious trouble.

“There was bullying, aggression and constant lies from the very beginning. Lie after lie after lie.

“It is utterly disgusting.”

Victim Chris Head said he was not surprised by the revelations.

He added: “This really, really needs to be looked at.

“Without full disclosure the CCRC will not be allowed to do its job.”

Horizon was introduced in 1999 and used by nearly 12,000 Post Office branches.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Fraser said the Post Office’s attempts to defend Horizon “amounts to the 21st century equivalent of maintaining that the earth is flat”.

‘It is utterly disgusting’