Post Office boss ‘misled High Court’
Emails contradict Angela van den Bogerd’s previous testimony about accessing IT system remotely
The Post Office boss has been accused of misleading the High Court by claiming she did not know the Horizon IT system could be accessed remotely before 2018. Testifying under oath in March 2019, Angela van den Bogerd told the court in the case of Mr Bates vs the Post Office she had first become aware transactions could be inputted without a sub-postmaster’s knowledge the previous year. However, yesterday the inquiry was shown emails that revealed she knew as far back as 2010.
A FORMER Post Office boss has been accused of misleading the High Court by claiming she did not know the Horizon IT system could be accessed remotely before 2018.
Testifying under oath in March 2019, Angela van den Bogerd told the court in the case of Mr Bates vs the Post Office she had first become aware transactions could be inputted without a sub-postmaster’s knowledge the previous year.
However, yesterday the inquiry into the Horizon scandal was shown a number of emails which revealed she was told remote access was possible as far back as 2010.
Ms van den Bogerd, who held various senior roles during her 35-year career at the Post Office and was in charge of handling complaints about Horizon from 2010, told the inquiry during her longawaited appearance that she never “knowingly” did anything wrong in the scandal.
The revelation provides further evidence that the former top Post Office executive misled High Court judge Peter Fraser in the 2019 case.
He said at the time: “There were two specific matters where [Van den Bogerd] did not give me frank evidence, and sought to obfuscate matters, and mislead me.”
The inquiry was shown an email sent on Dec 5 2010, from Lynn Hobbs, the organisation’s general manager of network support, to Ms van den Bogerd, which said she had “found out that Fujitsu can actually put an entry into a branch account remotely”.
When asked about this by Jason Beer KC, lead counsel to the inquiry, Ms van den Bogerd said she did not remember receiving the email.
“Is what truly happening here is that you’re telling us that you don’t recall it
‘I didn’t knowingly do anything wrong, and I would never knowingly do anything wrong’
because you know the email of December 5, 2010, presents you with a problem?” Mr Beer asked.
She responded: “No not all – I wish I had remembered that information.”
The fact that sub-postmaster accounts could be accessed remotely was a key part of the Horizon scandal, which saw more than 900 sub-postmasters wrongfully prosecuted because of faulty Horizon software producing fictional shortfalls on their accounts.
The inquiry heard that while giving evidence in the Mr Bates vs the Post Office High Court case in March 2019, Ms van den Bogerd said she first knew about remote access “in the last year or so”. Mr Beer asked: “That’s false isn’t it?”, to which she replied: “At the time I didn’t think it was.”
The inquiry was shown further emails from 2011 and 2014 in which Ms van den Bogerd was told about remote access.
Ms van den Bogerd initially came under fire earlier this year after she was portrayed in the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which brought global attention to the scandal.
She was described in the drama as being part of the “Gruesome Twosome” alongside Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive who was stripped of her CBE in February.
Yesterday, Ms van den Bogerd began her evidence by saying she was “truly, truly sorry” for the “devastation” caused to wrongly convicted sub-postmasters and their families.
However, she refused to take responsibility for her role in the scandal, telling the inquiry: “I didn’t knowingly do anything wrong, and I would never knowingly do anything wrong.”
Mr Beer pointed out that she had not apologised for her role in the scandal in her 132-page witness statement to the inquiry.
She responded: “I apologise for not getting to the answer more quickly. But with the evidence I had and the parameters of my role at the time, I did the best I could to the best of my ability.”
Ms van den Bogerd held various roles throughout her career at the Post Office, starting as a network change operations manager, then on to head of network services, head of partnerships, director of support services and the director of people and change.
She was appointed as the Post Office’s business improvement director in 2018, but stepped down from the role in 2020, telling the inquiry she had become “disillusioned” with delays in compensating postmasters.
She is due to return on Friday for a second day of giving evidence before the public inquiry.