Lawyer accused of ‘big fat lie’ over Horizon flaw denials

senior reporter

A FORMER Post Office lawyer denied telling a “big fat lie” over whether he knew of Horizon inaccuracies days before the trial of a pregnant sub-postmistress.

Jarnail Singh, who was head of criminal law at the organisation, also claimed he did not know how to save a document on his computer.

Mr Singh was prosecutor in the case of Seema Misra, a sub-postmistress who was pregnant in Nov 2010 when she was wrongfully given a 15-month sentence for false accounting and theft.

Mr Singh claims he was unaware of any Horizon bugs until July 2013, when forensic accountants Second Sight published a report on the software.

Yet yesterday, the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry was shown a report sent to Mr Singh in Oct 2010, which detailed a bug that could affect branch balances.

Text on the document shows it was saved to Mr Singh’s hard drive within minutes of being sent to him and also printed out. But when Jason Beer KC, counsel to the inquiry, put this to Mr Singh, he said: “I don’t know sir. I don’t recall seeing it, I don’t recall printing it.”

Mr Singh then went on to say he had never “saved a document” while working for the Post Office and Royal Mail.

“You never saved a document?,” asked Mr Beer. Mr Singh responded: “Not on [my hard drive]. No, because I don’t know how to do it.”

Mr Beer pressed Mr Singh further, saying: “All of this: ‘If I received it, if I read it’ – it’s a big fat lie, isn’t it? And you know it, Mr Singh.”

Mr Singh replied: “Sir, I didn’t come here to lie, I’m at an age where I have come to assist the inquiry. And that’s all.”

Mrs Misra was one of more than 800 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses wrongfully prosecuted after bugs in the Horizon software caused financial shortfalls to be falsely recorded on their branch accounts.

Mr Singh told the inquiry that had he seen the report, written in Sept 2010 by Gareth Jenkins, he would have made sure it was disclosed in her case. The file is also damaging for Mr Jenkins, who was an expert witness in Mrs Misra’s trial and helped secure her conviction.

Mr Singh apologised to Mrs Misra, who was at the hearing. He said: “I admit mistakes were made and I’m sorry that Mrs Misra suffered.